By Dorothy Frances Ward, GNA
Kumasi, Oct. 20, GNA – The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has attributed recent power supply challenges in parts of the Ashanti Region to equipment failures, cable faults and ongoing infrastructure upgrade works on the transmission and sub-transmission networks.
Mr James Mensah Yevunya, Manager for Network Maintenance at ECG, said the outages were caused by two current transformer explosions on the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) network and two cable faults at the Ridge Bulk Supply Point (BSP) and Boadi Primary Substations.
He disclosed this at a meeting between ECG and the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to discuss recent power supply challenges in parts of the Ashanti Region.
The Regulatory and Reliability Performance Monitoring Meeting formed part of PURC’s mandate to monitor electricity reliability and quality of service, assess operational challenges and ensure compliance with service delivery standards in the interest of consumers.
Mr Yevunya said ongoing upgrade projects being undertaken by GRIDCo and ECG had also placed additional constraints on the system.
He said GRIDCo was upgrading transformer capacity at the Ridge BSP from 50/66MVA to 120/145MVA, while ECG was installing new eight-way 33kV panels at the facility to accommodate the increased capacity and improve power distribution.
Mr Yevunya assured the Commission that ECG was expediting work on its installations to enable it to receive and utilise the upgraded capacity to improve electricity supply to consumers across the region.
Mr Edward Boduah, Ashanti Regional Manager of PURC, urged ECG to keep the Commission regularly informed about ongoing infrastructure projects and operational developments to enable the public to receive timely and accurate information on power supply conditions.
He also called for adequate resourcing of ECG’s Public Relations Office to strengthen collaboration with the media and PURC in communicating technical operations and service challenges promptly.
GNA
Edited by Kwabia Owusu-Mensah/Lydia Kukua Asamoah
Reporter: Dorothy Frances Ward
Email: [email protected]