The Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), on Wednesday explained that the recent occasional curtailment of power across was due to increased demand for electricity.
A statement issued in Accra by Mr Albert Quainoo, Head of GRIDCo Public Relations and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) said, the annual peak demand for electricity grew from 1,729MW in 2012 to 1,943MW in 2013, which is an over growth of 12 per cent.
It said the forecast demand is now 1,980MW at a peak with the current available generation capacity from the power producers at 1,965MW therefore the supply inadequacy especially during the peak period.
The statement said at present, all six generators at Akosombo Power Plant, all four generators at Kpong and two at Bui are available, but added that all three units at Bui have been commissioned, but power evacuation facilities for one of the units are incomplete, as work is being undertaken at the Sunyani substation.
It stated that expansion and maintenance works are on-going at TICO and TAPCO at Aboadze respectively, and are expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter and all these generators would have been restored to service.
The GRIDCo statement said the expansion works upon completion would increase the capacity plant of TICO from 220MW to 330MW, explaining that the mines reserve plant at Tema which has been out of service for over a year was restored on February 3, 2014 adding 40MW to the system.
It noted that in all, about 422MW of installed generating capacity is currently not available from various generators across the system because of the above stated reason.
It, however, encouraged the public to conserve electricity as GRIDCo keeps the people updated on any developments on the supply situation.
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