ECG is the biggest headache in the energy sector – Former Energy Minister
A former Energy Minister under the John Mahama administration, Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah, says the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is a major contributor to the country’s power sector challenges.
He said ECG has become the weakest link in the energy sector value chain.
The energy sector value chain mainly comprises production, transmission and distribution.
It refers to converting primary energy sources into a usable and deliverable form of energy for end consumers.
Recently, Ghanaians have experienced an unstable power supply in various parts of the country.
Consequently, the Minority in Parliament, Civil Society Organizations(CSOs) and energy sector players have called for a load-shedding timetable from ECG to help citizens plan their daily activities.
Many power consumers believe that the country was experiencing severe power outages in an era popularly known as ‘dumsor’ some years ago.
However, the national power distributor ECG said the company was not undertaking any load shedding that requires a timetable.
ECG explained that the intermittent power outages have been caused by maintenance issues and, in some cases, an overload on their transformers, as well as some localized underground cable faults, among others.
“What we are experiencing now is caused by a lot of overload. A lot of transformers have a lot of customers on them more than what we have prescribed. Apart from underground cable faults within some localities, some power plants also undergo maintenance,” a statement from ECG said.
Reacting to the issues of power cuts, the former Energy Minister said, “ECG is the weakest link in the value chain. It’s the biggest headache in the energy sector, and it’s a fact.”
“If you recall, what causes dumsor is not always one thing. It could be a generational shortfall, the issue of fuel and financial challenges in getting some of these things done. As we speak, the reason we don’t have a generational shortfall and say that we don’t have ‘dumsor’ in terms of the generational shortfall is that the MD of ECG rushes to buy heavy fuel oil for AKSA. The only reason why AKSA is operating is that ECG bought AKSA heavy fuel oil to operate. Sometimes, amid a crisis, we rush, and there are bigger issues that are confronting us,” Mr. Armah Kofi-Buah said on Joy News on March 4.