The Energy Ministry has denied claims by the Minority in Parliament that government put pressure on state power transmitter Ghana Grid Company Limited from publishing a national load-shedding timetable because there was never the need for one.

On Wednesday, 28 April 2021, the Ranking Member of the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, Mr John Jinapor, said during a press conference by the caucus that: “What is even more disturbing is despite confirmation from GRIDCo a couple of weeks ago that the country will continue to experience these power outages into the foreseeable future, for which reason they promised to publish a load management schedule, the anticipated schedule has since been put on hold due to political pressure from the executive.”

A statement issued by the communication unit of the Energy Ministry, however, said nothing of that ever happened.

“For the record, there has been no nationwide load shedding in the country, neither has there been an attempt to embark on one because there is no need to”, it said.

“Some of the projects ongoing in Accra and Kasoa, for example, will require outages for some days. The Pokuase timetable is out, starting from May 10 to May 17th, 2021. That of Kasoa is yet to be published and shall be released at the appropriate time when the necessary arrangements and consultations with the relevant stakeholders have taken place”, the statement noted.

It added: “The only reason these outages are being carried is to allow for the contractors to tie in their works into the existing transmission lines. It is therefore false to claim, as the Minority in Parliament has, that political pressure has been brought to bear on the publishing of a load shedding timetable”.

Below are further reasons given by the Ministry for the intermittent power outages:

1.    Feeder outages in Kumasi arising from low water levels in the Bui Dam enclave. Bui is a peaking plant for transmission services to Ashanti, Bono regions, and the Northern parts of Ghana. Bui is crucial, in that it is able to energise the low voltages in power being supplied from the south into Ashanti and the north).

2.    Prestea-Obuasi Transmission line trips, leading to a total system shutdown (the line that tripped affected other adjacent lines. This curtailed supply and caused a system shutdown).

3.    Gas flow challenges upstream — arising from challenges in the WAPCo supply line.

4.    Gas Compressor faults reported by Ghana Gas.

5.    Localised outages within the distribution chain