The Ministry of Energy has explained that the temporary control room being constructed to support power evacuation is expected to be completed by the end of September, despite an earlier timeline pointing to August.
The Ministry’s spokesperson, Richmond Rockson, said the revised timeline followed a decision by engineers and the Energy Minister to prioritise the restoration of power while work on a more permanent control facility continues.
Speaking on JoyFM’s Top Story on Thursday, August 20, Mr Rockson said the government had to make a critical decision following the incident that disrupted the country’s power supply.
He explained that authorities had to choose between constructing an entirely new control room before restoring power or finding an interim solution that would allow electricity generation and supply to resume quickly.
According to him, engineers recommended the temporary arrangement, which the Minister approved.
“The minister took the decision to go by it, and then steps were taken to put together a temporary structure that will serve as the control room or the switchyard.
“That is what the minister referred to today; that will be completed at the end of next month, which is September,” he said.
Mr Rockson said the absence of the switchyard means the power system currently operates with an inherent risk of volatility, making it vulnerable to disturbances along the transmission line.
He therefore appealed to Ghanaians to bear with the system until the temporary facility is completed.
“There’s an inherent risk, and then, of course, it exposes the system to some volatility. And so any disturbance may affect that line because of the absence of the switchyard,” he said.
He maintained, however, that power stability had significantly improved since electricity was restored following the April 30 incident.
Mr Rockson said the temporary arrangement had allowed the country to continue evacuating power while the control room is being constructed.
His comments come after the Energy Minister announced that the temporary control room is expected to be ready by the end of September, while an investigative committee had earlier indicated that an interim system would be operational by the end of August.
Mr Rockson also addressed a power disruption recorded earlier on Thursday, saying engineers moved quickly to restore electricity across the country.
“The good thing is that the GRIDCo engineers, together with power sector players, took steps. The power restoration process began as early as around 5 to 6 a.m. And by 12, 3 p.m., power had been restored to all parts of the country,” he said.
He assured the public that the power plants and transmission systems were operational and electricity was being evacuated.
“We are evacuating power from there. All systems are up and running. All the plants are up,” he added.
He said any customers still experiencing outages are likely to be affected by localised faults rather than a nationwide power supply problem.
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