26th March 2024 10:02:03 AM
2 mins readMember of Parliament, John Jinapor, is pressing the Ministry of Energy and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) for transparency regarding ongoing power outages.Over the past few weeks, the nation has experienced widespread power outages, commonly known as "dumsor."In response to these disruptions, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) directed ECG to establish a load-shedding timetable.
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However, ECG maintains there is no power crisis, attributing the unstable supply to faulty transformers.Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh has refuted claims of "dumsor," challenging the public to devise their own timetable if they believe a crisis exists.John Jinapor argues that the energy sector faces generation challenges impacting distribution.
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He suggests PURC focus on improving generation rather than mandating a load-shedding schedule.Speaking on Joy FM's Top Story on March 25, Jinapor expressed dismay at the Minister's response, accusing him of politicizing sector challenges.Executive Director of the Institute of Energy Security, Nana Amoasi VII, supports Jinapor's stance, asserting that ECG and the Energy Ministry are obligated to provide a timetable amid outages.
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Nana Amoasi VII criticized the Minister's dismissal of demands for a timetable, suggesting it demonstrates a lack of awareness and disrespect toward consumers' rights.“I am very, very surprised even at the PURC directive because the main problem is generation, it has nothing to do with transformers. I thought that the PURC would have done its investigation to indeed determine that there is a generation shortfall.
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“If there is a generation shortfall, the outage that occurs at the bulk supply point is controlled by GRIDCo. So GRIDCo will then have to inform ECG which bulk supply point will go off, then ECG will inform its consumers. As we speak there is a deficit in terms of generation and until that is resolved we will continue to have the load shedding we are experiencing.
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”"I am very shocked and surprised that the minister would give such contradictory and counter instructions. He should know better that we are shedding load, and even in his interview, he couldn't refute it. He admitted that yes, they are shedding load, but in his opinion, it is better than during President Mahama’s time. And so what? That is the question.
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Let’s assume it's better, so people should not be given a timetable to plan because, in the minister’s opinion, it is better.“If you admit there is load-shedding, give the people the timetable to plan. And when the people request that the outages are becoming too frequent, give us the timetable to plan, the minister says 'that those requesting the timetable should go and prepare the timetable themselves.
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It is extremely unfortunate, very insulting,” he added.
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