ECG lied about transformer overload causing dumsor

The Public Utility Regulatory Commission, PURC, has accused the Electricity Company of Ghana, ECG, of lying about the real causes of the power outages between January and March 2024. It said, its analysis of the data submitted by the power distributor did not show that the outages were caused by overloaded transformers.

According to the PURC, “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%.”

It added 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.”

Based on the above, the PURC said, the “ECG’s attribution of the outages between 7 pm and 11 pm to transformer overload was therefore not factually accurate.”

Also, Ishmael Edjekumhene, a Commissioner of PURC said their follow-up on the said transformers did not corroborate what ECG claimed were the problems.

“We were just following up on information that ECG itself has put into the public domain which the regulator wasn’t aware. So, when we wrote to the ECG, if that wasn’t the case they should probably have said that that wasn’t the case. But they gave us all the information.

“We have gone out to all the transformers, at least a majority of the transformers and it is turning out to be that those transformers were not overloaded. That is why GRIDCO said they gave instructions and ECG is not complying with those directives in a timely manner,” Edjekumhene said on the Citi Breakfast Show.