Ministry of Energy to hold press conference on power outages

The Ministry of Energy in collaboration with the Ministry of Information would hold a press conference on the current true situation of the power sub-sector on Tuesday, March 13.

A statement signed by Dr Joe Oteng-Adjei, Minister of Energy in Accra on Wednesday said "The Ministry wishes to unreservedly apologise to Ghanaians for the inconvenience these current challenges might have caused them and promise to ensure that these difficulties are addressed as soon as possible".

"The Ministry also wants to thank the public for the patience they have exhibited so far and assure them that the Ministry has not taken this magnanimity for granted."

The statement said the Ministry had observed with great concern the major operational challenges within the power sector that had resulted in reduced power supply or complete power outages throughout the country.

It said these supply challenges were due to reduced gas supply from Nigeria which had affected thermal power production and the snapping of a lightening conductor (sky-wire) at the Akosombo Plant switchyard on February 26, resulting in the total shut down of the power system.

"Though the utility companies have issued statements to the media explaining reasons for the recent happenings, the Ministry of Energy owes it to the public to give a full disclosure of the state of our power sector and what is being done to address the challenges therein."