Bui Power, GRIDCo trade blames over recent ‘dumsor’

The Bui Power Authority CEO, Fred Oware, has described as unfortunate attempts by the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) to blame his outfit for the country’s recent power outages.

It comes after GRIDCo said the authority had to shut down its power plants due to low water levels.

Responding to this, Mr Oware said the claims were misleading.

According to him, Bui was still in operation, contrary to the assertions put out by GRIDCo.

“Let me be bold enough and say that I think GRIDCo has misled the Minister in making such a sad statement. Because as we sit here talking right now, Bui is in operation. We have three units which work at 133. It is not true.

“The water is gone down without any doubt whatsoever, but this is not an unforeseen act. We knew this, and last year when we submitted our supply plan, we indicated quite clearly that this year we would not be able to generate as much as we generated last year,” he explained.

While admitting that the Bui power plant was not working at full capacity, Mr Oware said the phenomenon was predicted and communicated to GRIDCo in its supply plan for 2021.

“They (GRIDCo) can’t put it [power cuts] on Bui because we knew last year that the supply plan would be what it is. And so they should have looked at our supply plan and made alternative arrangements to fill in the gap but to say that there is dumsor because of Bui is quite misleading,” he stressed.

The Bui Dam cannot generate the 400 megawatts when at its peak to support the national grid in the evening when electricity demand is highest.

It is currently able to produce 90 megawatts.

But Mr Oware explained that the plant is still able to generate some megawatts during peak hours.

He said his outfit had added 22 megawatts from its solar project onto the national grid.

Mr Oware added that the ultimate goal is to scale up the solar plant to 250 megawatts.

“We are on course, and we are hopeful of achieving the target set; indeed, during the dry seasons when the water level is down, we can then rely heavily on the solar panel to give us the power that we need and when in the season the hydro will come in” he pointed out.

Mr Fred Oware further stated that the power generated from the solar plants would be available during the day only when the sun is up.

In recent times, parts of the country have experienced erratic power outages sparking fears of a return of power crisis popularly known as ‘dumsor’.

Consumers have demanded a timetable to enable them to plan ahead of power outages.

But the Energy Minister rejected claims that dumsor had resurfaced.

What GRIDCo said about Bui Power

The GRIDCo Boss, Jonathan Amoako-Baah, at a news conference, said the Bui hydroelectric power plant happens to be the only power plant in the central part of the country and has grown in terms of demand because consumption had crossed 3000MW for the first time.

“The Bui power plant supplies part of the central part of the country, and the rest of the load is met by generation from the down south. Currently, as I am talking to you now, we have had to shut down the Bui plant because of the low water in the dam.”

Thus, Mr Amoako-Baah explained that every power supply comes from the coast to the northern part of the country.

He said, “By the time it gets to Kumasi, the voltage is so low, the reason the lights are dim when you switch them on. If nothing is done to increase the voltage, the entire system will collapse,” he said.