Blackout as thieves vandalize electricity cable at Tema Industrial Area

Some unknown persons have cut parts of some newly laid electricity cables at the Smelter Two Bulk Supply Point by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Mr. Emmanuel Akinie, Tema ECG Regional General Manager has said.

Mr. Akinie told the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Tema that power disruptions that occurred in Kpone, and its environs some few days ago were the result of their acts.

The areas and industries served by the Bulk Supply Point cable include B5 Plus, Mass Industries, Mavis Industries, Blow-Chem, the entire Kpone Township, Community 25, Ghana Steel, Affordable Housing, and Adi Steel among others.

He said ECG discovered the cable cut on the morning of March 08 as part of investigations into the outage which occurred at dawn.

He noted that the cable was part of a set of new cables which had been laid a few days prior to the incident, adding that they were the replacement for some old and worn-out cables

He disclosed that the said cables were replaced due to the challenges of supplying electricity to these places for some time now.

The ECG General Manager said the cutting of the cable after it has been laid and energized (electricity was running thru them) led to the outage.

“As it is now, the cable has been decommissioned as work has to be done on it before it can be energized again,” he said.

He added however that the load of customers who did not have supply because of the cable cut had been transferred to other networks and were on supply now while engineers worked to fix the cut cable.

He also pleaded with customers and the public to help protect ECG property and equipment as damage to them, such as the cable cut, ended up affecting customers, while adding cost to the company which must spend resources meant for other projects on such repair and replacement works.

Mr. Akinie cautioned criminals against such acts, saying such attempts were dangerous as one could easily lose their life through electrocution.

“When cables are laid, you may not know whether there is electricity in them or not; in this case, while the person was cutting it, there was an explosion which then caused the outage and the person also bolted, leaving behind a hacksaw,” he said