Ranking Member on the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament John Jinapor has attributed the current power cuts in various parts of the country to generation issues.
He says that claims by the electricity company of Ghana that some 600 of its trafcomers are overloaded, leading to their maintenance are false.
Speaking on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 on Thursday, March 29, he said “The reason is that we don’t have enough generation problems, that is a fact so if there is no generation GRDICO cannot supply, and if GRDICO cannot supply it has to take the bulk supply off, that is the truth.
“This narrative and fabricated story of so-called transformer overload is a huge lie. You have 600 transformers you claim are overloaded of 33000 transformers, which is less than 2 percent so are we having its massive load-shedding because of 2 percent of so-called transformers being loaded? Is there a generation shortfall or not?”
The former deputy minister of energy, John Jinapor, said the current Dumsor is purely a financial issue.
He alleged that the government needs about US$50 million to defray old debts and to purchase more gas.
“There is a generation shortfall. Do we have enough money to buy fuel? No. government is broke, they don’t have the money to buy fuel, until their procure fuel for the thermal plant they will have a deficit in terms of generation.”
“It is a financial problem if they have the money today and they buy fuel it will be over, the thermal plants are available, Hydro is performing at full capacity, all they need is to get fuel for the thermal plants.
“They’ve asked for about 50 million dollars to buy fuel, [but] the Ministry of Finance hasn’t been able to get them the money,” he stated.
The ranking member also shared the views of the Public Utility Workers Union (PUWU), indicating that the onus lies on GRIDCo to inform the distributor, ECG, about the quantum of power available for the bulk supply points.
“Yes, that is true. GRIDCo has to inform ECG that we don’t have enough power, so this evening we can’t give you enough power, then GRIDCo will tell ECG that this evening we are taking the Mallam bulk supply point off so that ECG informs its customers,” said Jinapor, adding, “I was surprised the MD [of ECG] tried to take the fall by saying that some [630] transformers are overloaded.”
Dumsor: GRIDCo determines load shedding – PUWU