The Africa Sustainable Energy Centre (ASEC) has called on stakeholders and the public to move away from demands for load-shedding timetables and instead prioritise addressing the structural challenges undermining the country’s power system, particularly through the urgent introduction of robust redundancy measures.
The Centre warned that, although recent outages have intensified calls for scheduled power cuts, introducing a timetable at this stage risks normalising a situation that should be resolved through improved planning, coordination and system design.
“The current situation is not one that should be managed with timetables, but one that must be resolved at its root,” said Ing. Justice Ohene-Akoto, Executive Director of ASEC. “This is not the time to institutionalise outages; it is the time to strengthen the system, especially through robust redundancy that prevents failures from escalating.”
ASEC noted that the ongoing disruptions are not primarily due to inadequate generation capacity, but rather reflect gaps in operational planning and execution—particularly within the transmission and distribution segments of the power sector. It identified the lack of sufficient redundancy in critical infrastructure as a major weakness, leaving the system vulnerable to widespread outages when faults occur or during retrofit activities.
The Centre highlighted the critical role of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in stabilising the system, stressing that as the main interface with consumers, ECG must ensure that all technical interventions, including retrofit works, are executed with built-in redundancy to maintain continuous supply.
Key areas requiring urgent attention include:ECG pausing ongoing retrofit works to restore system stability; immediate integration of redundancy in all critical systems to eliminate single points of failure; strengthening planning and coordination of infrastructure upgrades: and ensuring retrofit activities are undertaken without disrupting supply
Others are improving system monitoring and operational efficiency and enhancing communication and public engagement
ASEC noted that resilient power systems are built on redundancy, warning that without it, even minor faults can trigger widespread disruptions.
“If ECG and other stakeholders focus on proper planning, disciplined execution and, critically, the introduction of redundancy, stability will be achieved and the need for a timetable will not arise,” Ing. Ohene-Akoto added.
The Centre further urged sector institutions, including GRIDCo and the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition, to strengthen coordination and oversight to ensure redundancy planning becomes a standard requirement across all operations and infrastructure upgrades.
The think-tank reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the energy sector through research, policy advocacy and technical expertise aimed at building a resilient, reliable and future-ready power system.
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