General News of Monday, 19 January 2015
Source: Starrfmonline.com
Individuals and businesses must brace themselves up for more power outages in the coming days because the country’s power producers say they have been forced to intensify the load shedding.
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has been shedding power for the last two years due to the power crisis facing the West African nation.
The situation has worsened in the last few days after ECG shed close to 600 megawatts of power, according to Starr FM sources.
The Ghana Grid Company had already admitted that the decision by Nigerian authorities to cut gas supplies to Ghana contributed to the current power crisis.
Consumers, who spoke to Starrfmonline.com, have expressed their disgust at the crisis, saying the situation is affecting their businesses.
The Director of Systems and Operations at the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), Bernard Tawiah Modey, told Starr News the load being shed by ECG is close to 590 megawatts. According to him, the shortfall in production is as a result of growing demand for power and reduction in generation for mandatory maintenance on its turbines.
He added that the low gas supply from Nigeria is also a factor for the worsening power crisis.
Modey said the current situation is likely to abate after the first quarter of 2015.