The Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Kwame Agyemang Badu, has denied claims that recent power outages in the country are as a result of financial difficulties facing the energy sector.
According to him, the gas pipeline from Tema to Takoradi is currently undergoing maintenance, causing erratic power supply.
Ghanaians in the past weeks have complained about the frequent power outages and have demanded a load shedding timetable from the ECG.
Speaking to Citi News, Mr. Agyemang Badu assured that the situation will be stabilized by the end of the week.
“The power shedding that has been going on is due to some maintenance that we are doing on our pipeline from Tema to Takoradi so it is not a monetary issue.We have the number of generation companies that are willing to provide us with power but the problem is we are doing some maintenance so the power that is supposed to come from Nigeria is not coming. You cannot let power flow while doing maintenance. It has nothing to do with money. We promise the good citizens of Ghanaians that by the end of this week everything will be done and things will go back to normal,” Mr. Badu explained.
Power supply to normalize soon
A Deputy Energy Minister, William Owuraku-Aidoo recently also stated that the erratic power supply being experienced in some parts of the country should stabilize soon.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Mr. Owuraku-Aidoo, said the state is “looking at just a matter of days to bring this whole problem to an end.”
The Deputy Minister had explained that challenges with an ongoing pigging exercise “is what is creating the problems that we are encountering right now.”
Pipeline pigging is a concept in pipeline maintenance that involves the use of devices known as pigs, which clean pipelines and are capable of checking pipeline condition. This process is done without necessarily interfering with the flow of product in the pipe.
Describing the encountered problems as unexpected, he noted the exercise has taken out over a 1,000 megawatts from the Tema area.
