The Minister of Energy, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempreh, has clarified that the recent power outages experienced in parts of the country were not a result of load shedding by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

For months, many parts of the country have faced intermittent power outages, causing inconvenience to businesses and households.

Responding to questions in Parliament, Dr. Opoku Prempeh explained that the outages were due to various factors, including localised issues with overloaded online transformers.

He highlighted the transformation of certain areas, like parts of East Legon, from purely residential to commercial districts, leading to increased power consumption and strain on existing infrastructure.

Additionally, he mentioned emergency situations such as the shutdown of the CenPower plant, resulting in a loss of 40 megawatts, and ongoing maintenance at the Amandi power plant.

Dr. Opoku Prempeh emphasized that these factors, along with emergency outages requested by GRIDCo, contributed to the power outages.

He stated that ECG could not have implemented a pre-programmed load shedding schedule due to the unplanned nature of the incidents.

The Minister's clarification comes amidst public concern and speculation about the causes of the recent power outages. He assured that the government and relevant agencies are working to address the issues and improve the reliability of the country's power supply.