Ashanti Region outages caused by faulty underground cables - Energy Minister tells Parliament

The Minister of Energy and Green Transition, John Jinapor, has attributed recent power outages in the Ashanti Region to some faulty underground cables detected only in December last year. 

He indicated that the faulty cables made power supply from the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) at the Ridge Bulk Supply Point (BSP) substation in Kumasi a challenge, leading to the outages as there were no alternative routes available to facilitate power evacuation and supply.

“When that major fault occurred, the system had not been configured to have an alternative route to allow power to be evacuated.

So, from December through to January, there were several major challenges and outages in respect of supplying reliable power within that enclave,” he said.

The Minister of Energy was answering questions in Parliament concerning the recent outages, and offering updates on the sector. 

Solution

Mr Jinapor emphasised that “on assumption of office, this administration took urgent steps to replace approximately three kilometres of faulty lines on that section to ameliorate the challenge”. 

“Since those repairs were completed, power supply to that area has improved tremendously and significantly,” he said.

“We will continue to monitor the situation and to undertake emergency remedial measures when it becomes necessary,” he added.

The Energy Minister further stated that the demand for power in the Ashanti Region had increased, which meant that some additional work ought to have been undertaken to absorb the increasing demand.

He announced that “in mid-February of this year, GRIDCo has completed a 145 megavolt-amperes (MVA) transformer at the Anwomaso bulk supply point”.

He added that “this has improved the power supply situation in Kumasi and reduced the need to shed load from the rate substation”.

New substations, improvement

Mr Jinapor, who is also the Member of Parliament for Yapei-Kusawgu in the Northern Region, said ECG was constructing a double circuit tower line from the Anwomaso bulk supply point to the airport substation while also upgrading 14 capacity transformers and the new substations, which would interconnect various areas such as Boankra, Adansi Asokwa and Asante Akyem Agogo.

He added that some additional works were currently being undertaken to strengthen the network, increase transformer capacity in the region to make it more resilient, and ensure the supply of power was reliable and consistent.

Mr Jinapor said he intended to visit Kumasi within the week to ascertain for himself the extent of work and commission the major bulk supply point.

He told the House that the power situation in the region had improved as the Ministry of Energy was working to ensure that there was a reliable supply of power in that area.