Dumsor: Don’t blame ECG – PURC tells Ghanaians

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) says the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) should not be blamed entirely for the intermittent power supply being experienced by Ghanaians.

Bawah Munkaila, the Head of Public Relations and External Affairs of PURC told Citi FM as monitored by GhanaWeb that his outfit is worried that the ECG has come under public criticism due to the electricity distribution role ECG plays in the power distribution chain.

“It is unfortunate that the general public is in direct contact with ECG. So whenever the consumer is having an erratic power supply, we blame ECG. It’s a value chain and it’s a three-step in the value chain. We have the generation, the transmission and the distribution. It is the distribution that serves as power in our premises. The generation and the transmission are in the background. So, if it’s a problem in the value chain, the consumer may not be aware of where the problem is coming from. So, some of these things may not directly be associated with ECG.”

ECG has come under public criticism recently for the intermittent power outages, popularly called dumsor.

GRIDCo, which is the power transmission company has insisted that the challenges with supply electricity are technical.

According to GRIDCo, its transmission lines are faulty and for scheduled maintenance works to be done some areas will need to have their power disconnected.

Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Energy Minister, said: “Just two days ago, I received a letter from MiDA [Millennium Development Authority] who are helping upgrade the Pokuase and Kasoa substations. They informed me that the progress of the substation is such that in the month of May, there will be systematic power outages, so we have invited both ECG and GRIDCo and in the light of that, let us sit and plan and communicate with the people who will be affected way before it happens.”