‘Worried’ Power Producers call for probe into nationwide ‘dumsor’

The Chamber of Independent Power Producers, Distributors and Bulk Consumers (CIPDiB) has said it is concerned about the reliability, security and integrity of the Ghana Grid Company Limited’s system.

At about 2:10 pm on Sunday, the whole nation was plunged into a total blackout and GRIDCo in a statement said the situation was due to “a technical fault on one of the major transmission lines between Prestea and Obuasi.”

The situation according to GRIDCO led to “overloads on other adjacent transmission lines, leading to a sequence of trips and an eventual power system shutdown in the country.”

Reacting to this development in a Citi Business News monitored by GhanaWeb, Chief Executive of CIPDiB, Elikplim Apetorgbor said the chamber is demanding a full investigation into the challenges in GRIDCo’s power system that led to a system shutdown resulting in the nationwide power outage.

“GRIDCo’s role in the electricity value chain is a sensitive one. We have every reason to be worried, so we expect a thorough technical investigation and evaluation to ascertain the cause of the blackout or the grid failure that we experienced. And the findings should be made public as well as appropriate measures taken to forestall future occurrences,” he said.

In a related development, former Ranking Member on Parliament’s select committee on Mines and Energy, Mutawakilu Adam, has attributed the situation to GRIDCo’s inability to adjust its system in response to power supply challenges in the Western Region.

The former MP for Damongo has thus called on GRIDCo to adapt a dynamic system to effectively respond to such challenges whiles ensuring the constant supply of fuel to emergency plants to provide backup power supply in times of such challenges.