John Jinapor calls for transparency from ECG amid power crisis in Ghana

Ghanaian

John Jinapor, Ranking Member of Parliament's Mines and Energy Committee, has called upon Samuel Dubik Mahama, Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), to provide transparent insights into the challenges facing the power sector amidst the ongoing "dumsor" crisis.

In an interview on JoyFM’s Top Story, Jinapor dismissed claims attributing power outages solely to transformer issues

Read full articleor maintenance challenges. Instead, he emphasized a broader generation problem leading to distribution challenges, resulting in the current power crisis.

“Transformers do not get overloaded overnight. ECG by conversion undertakes routine maintenance in the afternoon, they don't undertake in the night from 7-11pm. Routine maintenance means that you have planned. You cannot engage in routine maintenance in the day and at the same time in the night.

Jinapor urged Mahama to openly communicate these challenges to facilitate a collaborative discussion among stakeholders in the energy sector to identify solutions.

“When you come and tell us that your transformers are overloaded, please, people are listening, people understand the sector. All transformers in ECG all of a sudden are overloaded, and your routine maintenance is done in the night? Please give us some modicum and some credit of intelligence. When churning out this kind of false information to us, it is not fair at all,” he added.

Highlighting specific statistics, Jinapor underscored a generation deficit of 600 Megawatts, citing operational issues and fuel shortages as contributing factors. He also noted a significant decline in gas production since 2017, further exacerbating the energy shortfall.