PDS announces new blackouts beginning April 11th

General News on Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-04-09

On behalf of the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), the Power Services (PDS) Ghana Ltd. electricity distribution company. cut electricity in some parts of the country. The request was ordered to allow GRIDcCo to build a 330 kV overhead line between Kumasi and Aboadze.

The power outage will last six consecutive days – from Thursday, April 11 to Wednesday, April 17. The lights will be off from 8am to 4pm.

Affected areas include Tarkwa, Bogoso, Asawinso and Juaboso.

Last Friday, PDS published a list of areas likely to fail during the weekend. These areas include Osu, Ablekuma and Airport City Enclave. The breakdown lasted about 12 hours.

Prior to the outage, PDS explained that the blackout was due to the closure of the Atuabo gas processing plant two weeks ago.

"The inconvenience that will result for GRIDCo is deeply regretted," reads a statement from the PDS, followed by "PDS … here to serve."

PDS took over the Ghana Electricity Company (ECG) in February. His website has since been closed.

In the meantime, many Ghanaians are shocked by the country's sudden lack of electricity, which has plunged them into darkness for days.

Kwesi Owuso is a tailor in Kokomlemle whose work has been "enormously affected" due to lack of electricity in his community at the end of March.

"Customers are disappointed. The government must solve this problem, "he told Joy FM.

Another resident, Joseph, has a hair salon and has had a haircut in his hand. "I had to refuse most of my clients. It's pathetic. "

Isaac Nurris Ainooson, PRS Public Relations Manager Accra East, told Joy FM Saturday that the cause of the problem was a faulty seal on the power lines.

He explained that in March and April specifically, extreme temperatures and the corresponding need for electricity overload the power grid, resulting in power outages.

Ainooson could not confirm if the power would remain stable, although he mentioned that the problem had been solved temporarily.

"We had to throw food, which has a cost. Some of us had to sleep outside because there is no air entering the room, "said another resident of Accra living in Madina, where electricity was also cut off for several days. It's frustrating. "

In 2016, Erasmus Baidoo, regional manager of public relations at Ashanti at ECG, told Al Jazeera that one of the major problems in Ghana's electricity supply is that "people are trying to cheat the system."

He explained that only about 40% of ECG customers (now PDS) pay their bills, resulting in multi-million dollar debt.

"What about 60% [of customers that don’t pay]"Baidoo asked." Are you going to stop everyone? Are you going to deny them power because they have not paid their bills? "

Last year, Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko, refuted rumors that dumsor was going to make a comeback.

"We are not in an era of" dum koraaa. "The lights are extinguishing as we see it, but I can badure you that this long period during which we had envisaged that our opponents think they want to take advantage of this period we will never come because we are managing the system, "he said." We have people here to run the system, and we can badure Ghanaians that the situation is now well under control. "