The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has swiftly responded to allegations made by the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) regarding ECG's alleged non-compliance with load management instructions.
In a letter dated March 28, 2024, GRIDCo expressed concerns about ECG's lack of adherence to load management directives from GRIDCo's System Control Centre (SCC), suggesting that ECG's actions could jeopardize the country's power generation.
ECG, while emphasizing its commitment to working with GRIDCo and maintaining operational cohesion within the electricity value chain, expressed shock and concern over the allegations. According to ECG, GRIDCo's portrayal of the situation lacks context and fails to acknowledge the operational challenges faced by ECG.
As outlined in ECG's response, the main issue is about the timing and adequacy of load management requests received from GRIDCo. While ECG acknowledges receiving directives to drop loads at specific Bulk Supply Points (BSPs), it highlights discrepancies in the timing of these requests and their impact on operational planning.
Providing detailed statistics on load management requests received from GRIDCo between January and March 2024, ECG demonstrated instances where requests were received shortly before peak or off-peak periods, limiting ECG's ability to plan and inform customers adequately.
“It is a fact that GRIDCo routinely directs ECG's System Operators to drop load at some of our Bulk Supply Points (BSPs), but the issue has been the inadequacy between the time these requests are received and the time these requests must be effected to sustain the integrity of the power system and also for ECG to inform its customers.
“It is worthy to note that, between January and March 2024, sixty-four (64No.) requests were received from GRIDCo for load management. Out of this, forty (40No.) were for peak periods (18:00 - 24:00 hrs) and twenty-four (24No.) for off-peak (06:00 - 18:00 hrs) load management.
“Out of the forty (40no.) peak load requests, thirty-five (35No.) (88%) of them were received within an hour to the peak period. There were only five (5No) (12%) instances where ECG received the request within 2-3 hours of the peak period.
"Out of the Twenty-Four (24No.) off-peak load requests, three (3No) (13%) of them were received within 30 minutes to the off-peak period while the remaining Twenty-One (21 No.) (87%) instances were received far into the off-peak period,” the power distributor said.
ECG also highlighted specific incidents in March 2024 where operational challenges within its network led to a lower compliance rate with GRIDCo's load management directives.
The power distributor reiterated its commitment to collaborate with GRIDCo and other stakeholders to ensure transmission system stability.
However, ECG stressed the importance of GRIDCo providing advance notice of load management requests to enable effective planning and execution without unduly impacting customers.
"We however wish to reiterate our request that the Notice to our System Operators for load management should be received before 3:00pm for peak load and 4am for off-peak load management or to be received 24 hours ahead in each case, as what is happening now is no longer an emergency operation but seemingly a routine daily activity,” the letter signed by ECG's Chief Executive, Ing. Ebenezer Kofi Essienyi said.
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