The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has said the Electricity Company of Ghana’s (ECG) attribution of power outages between 7pm and 11pm from January to March 2024 to overload transformers is “not factually accurate.”
A Monday, April 15, 2024 statement issued by the Commission says “analysis of the data submitted showed that out of 715 transformer details submitted, 31 were loaded less than 70%, 595 were loaded between 70-100% and 89 were loaded above 100%.”
The statement further detailed that “the data submitted by ECG was further compared to the total outage data provided by ECG for the period January to March 18, 2024. The Commission established that 647 outage incidents occurred between 7 pm and 11 pm. Of these 647 outage incidents, only 3 were planned outages relating to transformers. The analyses showed that the majority of the outages between 7 pm to 11 pm were as a result of load management operations by GRIDCo and faults unrelated to overloaded transformers.”
The PURC explained that the cause of the power outages are already being investigated by the Commission, concluding that the “ECG’s attribution of the outages between 7 pm and 11 pm to transformer overload was therefore not factually accurate.”
The Commission therefore resolved to fine the Board of Directors of the ECG GHC5.8million for failing to notify the public about the power outages.
It would be recalled that in March 2024, the PURC warned that it would be compelled to issue regulatory sanctions against the power distribution company.
This came after the regulatory body observed that the ECG had failed to comply with its directive to release a load-shedding timetable corresponding with the timelines and duration for each transformer injection.
The regulator said it had not seen any evidence of the publication of the load management timetable despite being ordered to do so. In that regard, the Commission said it “is finalizing regulatory action on the above.” Thus, the fine imposed on the Board members.
The ECG has been facing public backlash due to the prevailing erratic power supply situation in the country, locally known as ‘Dumsor’. While it lays the blame at the doorstep of the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), the latter also points to ECG for not complying with notices given to it.
Amid this blame game, the Board Chairman of the ECG, Mr Keli Gadzekpo resigned for “personal reasons.”
