Govt unable to publish load shedding timetable for political reasons – Bawa

Bongo lawmaker Edward Bawa has said the government is unable to publish a load shedding timetable because of political reasons.

He stated on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, April 3 that the government is concerned that such a publication will mean the country has returned to the erratic power supply (dumsor) era, a situation he believes will not be good for the administration.

Mr Bawa told show host Abena Tabi that the present situation demands that the timetable be released to enable the people to plan their lives properly.

He said these while contributing to the discussion on planned maintenance work to be done by the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo).

“The government and the utilities must be very frank and candid with Ghanaians. We have a challenge that people will have to plan their lives around it.

“It is important that we have a load management schedule so that people can manage that. I can understand why there is a hesitance in publishing such a schedule because then the issue of dumsor politics comes in but we cannot on the platform of politics inconvenient Ghanaians,” he said.

For his part, the Executive Director of the African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) Mr Ben Boakye noted that Ghana is currently facing critical issues of efficiency in its power transmission system.

He explained that the issues bother on technical, financial and managerial which must all be addressed concurrently, “otherwise we are not going to be able to fix the problems.”

Mr Boakye explained to host Abena Tabi that in the power sector, “we have transmission and distribution. If you generate power and you can’t transmit, the power sector is not complete.

“If you transmit and you cannot distribute for the consumer to use, you have no power system.

“Over the years, when we had crisis we have focused so much on generation and brought even more than we can consume as a country and we ignore the essential improvements that we need to do in the transmission and the distribution of electricity. That is why we are where we are because we have not invested.”

He added “The financial component is also critical. How you financed development across the entire network to ensure that they can be stable, they can be efficient, and deliver power when needed. We are facing the critical issue of efficiency in our transmission system as well.

“If you don’t transmit efficiently what happens is that you lose power whiles you are transmitting.

“The bottom line clearly is that the ingredients to the challenges in the power sector haven’t changed. it remains technical, it remains financial and managerial and we have to address all these concurrently, otherwise, we are not going to be able to fix the problems."

Meanwhile, GRIDCo has said it has no intentions of embarking on a nationwide load-shedding programme.

According to the Company, what is being experienced in some parts of Accra is part of a couple of projects to enhance power supply reliability in the Greater Accra Region.

It explained in a statement on Wednesday, March 31 that the ongoing projects appear to have heightened perceptions of impending nationwide power cuts.

“GRIDCo wishes to assure the general public that it has no intention of embarking on a nationwide load-shedding programme,” it stressed in the statement.