ECG board chair, Oteng Gyasi resigns

Tony Oteng Gyasi has resigned as the board chairman of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

He was appointed exactly a year ago to turn around a service provider that has largely been bedeviled with inefficiency.

But Mr. Oteng Gyasi confirmed to Joy Business on Friday, that he has formally tendered in his resignation.

Even though he said he was resigning for personal reason, sources say he cited health grounds in his resignation letter.

His decision comes at the time the Electricity Company of Ghana is faced with frequent load management much to the chagrin of many consumers especially industries.

The company this week asked consumers to brace up for a severe load shedding exercise following an abrupt cut in the supply of gas from Nigeria. The ECG is now shedding 500 megawatts.

Currently, all gas powered thermal plants across the country-Asogli plant, Mines Reserve Plant, Finesse plant all in Tema and T3 in Aboadze- have been shut down due to unavailability of the gas.

On Thursday the ECG failed to produce the schedule to guide the load shedding exercise because, it lacked the required information from the power generators, Volta River Authority, to develop the timetable.

Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Grid Company, William Amuna on Thursday told Joy FM the power system faces imminent collapse if the ongoing load shedding is not managed properly.

Speaking on Joy FM's Super Morning Show, Mr. Amuna said the power crisis could get worse if the ECG fails to properly manage the exercise.

“What is going to happen is that if ECG is not able to do that, we could collapse the power system,” the GRIDco Chief dreaded.