Power outage to push up prices

Ghanaians should brace themselves for the worst because of the announcement of a revised time-table for customers by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

Under the new arrangement, customers would enjoy a 24-hour power supply and thereafter experience power cut for 24 hours.

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of ECG, William Boateng, who disclosed this to Joy Fm lately, said the revision was attributable to a power generation shortfall of about 540 megawatts.

Presently, the load shedding exercise appears to be unplanned and the PRO stated that “it is a huge challenge because we don’t even know when you are going to go off and when you are having power.”

Most parts of Ghana are already experiencing unplanned power cut, which has made it difficult for consumers and industries to properly plan.

The development is expected to take a huge toll on industries in particular.

Manufacturers, who purchase petrol or diesel to power their generating plants, are likely to pass on the cost to consumers, who have been stretched beyond their limit.

The current load-shedding exercise is designed to contain 400 megawatts of power. With the new arrangement, an extra 140 megawatts generation shortage has been planned.

The ECG is expected to discuss the situation with the Volta River Authority (VRA) and Ghana Grid Company.

Mr Boateng noted that ECG would lose revenue due to the development since “now we can’t even go and read consumers’ meters because any time they go the meters are off.”

But Samuel Fletcher, PRO of VRA, noted that the situation would normalize by early 2015 when ongoing projects become fully operational.

The frequent power outage has negatively affected the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, which has been forced to suspend surgical operations.

ECG reportedly cut power supply to the hospital on Monday and the only generator at the health facility also went off Wednesday morning leaving patients and their relatives stranded and frustrated.