The Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) has attributed the ongoing power outages to limited gas supply to power thermal plants, affecting electricity transmission.
This comes amid irregular power supply in parts of the country, with some analysts and a section of the public cautioning that intermittent blackouts (dumsor) could be making a comeback.
The Corporate Communications Manager at GRIDCo, Dzifa Bampoh, clarified that the gas supply challenges stem from “commercial issues” involving agreements, payments, and negotiations with gas suppliers.
According to her, the situation has reduced generation capacity, leaving GRIDCo unable to transmit sufficient power to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
“We are aware of some commercial challenges with supply in reference to gas. When we say commercial challenges, it means there are agreements, payments, and negotiations that need to be made with the gas suppliers.
“So for us[GRIDCo], we are unable to provide the full quantum of power supply that ECG would need to plan in the country just because there have been commercial issues related to the gas,” she explained.
Ms Bampoh further clarified that the outages are unrelated to the shutdown of Sunon Asogli Power Limited due to ECG’s debt.
She noted that even if the Sunon Asogli plant were operational, gas supply shortages would still prevent GRIDCo from functioning effectively.
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“It doesn’t even have to do with the recent outages. The current outages we are experiencing including myself are really because we don’t have the full quantum of indigenous gas supply in Ghana to meet our demands,” she clarified on JoyNews.
She assured that the situation would stabilize once the government resolves the commercial challenges with gas suppliers, restoring consistent power generation and transmission.