Power outages to affect Accra, Winneba - GRIDCo

The Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) says only Accra and Winneba will experience power outages in the coming days following construction works on its main lines and at the main Pokuase sub station.

This, according to the Director of System Operations of GRIDCo, Mr Mark Baah is to allow the company facilitate some key projects to ensure power supply reliability in the Greater Accra Region.

At a press briefing in Accra Thursday [April 1, 2021], Mr Baah said in order for the projects to be completed the contractors have requested for some outages because as they build they have to connect it to the current system.

Watch the video below for the explanation

There have been power outages in some parts of the country, which has led to people claiming Ghana has returned to “Dumsor” and thereby requiring a load shedding timetable for GRIDCo.

But Mr Baah assured that there is no nationwide “Dumsor” coming.

Mr Baah said this at a press briefing on Thursday, April 1, 2021.

He mentioned some of these projects as the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) funded Pokuase substation and Kasoa Bulk Supply Point installations and the French Development Agency (AFD) funded Tema - Accra transmission line reinforcement project.

He explained that with  the major transmission line project from Tema to Accra and to Mallam, Tema is now a major generation hub with more than 1,000 megawatts being generated at Tema, "so we need massive transmission capacity to bring that out”.

“Pokuase is in the northern part of Accra and Pokuase is now going to be a hub, where the power that is being evacuated from Aboadze on the 330 KV will now come to Pokuase, before being sent to Tema”, he elaborated.

He added that “Pokuase will now allow the ECG the flexibility to meet demand in to northern part of Accra and in case there are challenges elsewhere in Accra, load can easily be moved to that area. So Pokuase will improve supply reliability in that area.”

He further stated that the demand for electricity is very high in Kasoa, hence, a substation is being built in Kasoa.

“Kasoa currently is being supplied from Mallam and Winneba. And that is accompanied by a lot of outages and so much loss within the distribution network. So Kasoa is being constructed and will be completed in August or September. Pokuase will be completed by June, July”

All these projects according to him, can only be completed on time when there is a planned power outage in the area.