The Volta River Authority (VRA) has told Citi Business News Ghanaians may have to endure the current power crisis for a while longer. Ghanaians living in various parts of the country say they have been experiencing unannounced power outages.
This has ignited public outrage over the refusal of the power companies to provide a schedule for what many believe is a new load-shedding program. But the VRA says planned maintenance at the Aboadze Terminal Plant has resulted in shedding of over 300 megawatts of power. Speaking to Citi Business News, Head of Communications at the VRA, Sam Fletcher, said ‘’you wouldn’t be able to tell [when] the crisis will end; you can only give a time frame when the repair work is coming to an end’’.
He added that the power providers are working to address the situation. Meanwhile the Public Utility Regulatory Commission has described the unannounced blackouts as unacceptable.
The power outages have worsened in the past few weeks, with the Volta River Authority attributing the problem to maintenance on some of its generation plants. But Director of Public Affairs at the PURC, Nana Yaa Jantuah, said her outfit has directed the power providers to explain the situation by Thursday. ‘’we know that there is some form of load shedding going on; the public too have complained, so we decided that it is imperative that the utilities explain to the public why there is this massive load shedding,’’ she said.
According to Nana Yaa there is no information or schedule from the utilities. ‘’There is no information, there is no schedule and the PURC and the public are not aware of exactly what is going on; we want to know exactly what is going on so that we can plan,’’ she noted. Residents in Accra and other parts of the country have been experiencing unannounced erratic power outages.
