GRIDCo restores power to VALCO

Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) has restored power to the Volta Aluminum Company Limited (VALCo) after disconnecting electricity supply to the Tema-based aluminium smelting firm on Monday, December 30, over a US$30 million debt.

Nana Oppong Damoah, the Head of Communications and Public Affairs at the Energy Ministry, confirmed the restoration of power to VALCO on Tuesday.

He said the Ministry was working to resolve the impasse that necessitated the action.

Nana Damoah said power was restored to VALCo few hours after GRIDCo announced the disconnection, while negotiations were ongoing with VALCO to settle their indebtedness.

“The Ministry is mediating to ensure that we come to a common ground point. Power has been restored to VALCO as we speak.

"We will continue to ensure that whilst the needs of VALCo are being catered for, GRIDCo is not left in the dark.

“We are already making quite a lot of headway and GRIDCo also felt that, they need to send the right signal, which they did, and so we will continue to ensure that this impasse is resolved in the shortest possible time," Nana Damoah explained.

The decision by GRIDCo to disconnect the power supply to VALCo was part of a broader effort to collect debts owed it by its bulk consumers, in order to breathe life into its operations.

GRIDCo’s operations were significantly impaired due to the huge debts, amounting to over GH¢1.2 billion.