Mutawakilu wants Tuesday’s dumsor investigated

The Ranking Member of Parliament’s Energy Committee, Adam Mutawakilu is calling on President Nana Akufo-Addo to cause an investigation into the power cut that occurred on Tuesday evening.

The legislator also urged the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) to assure Ghanaians “that such a thing will not happen again.”

A number of places in the country were plunged into darkness on Tuesday. The Electricity Company of Ghana blamed the power cut on technical challenges upstream and were beyond its control.

Though GRIDCo came out to say debts in the energy sector did not contribute to the outage, Mr. Mutawakilu urged the President to address the money problems in the energy sector.

“…This is a call on the President to ensure that the liquidity challenges facing all the energy sector agencies are resolved… and I also call on the President to ensure that this thing is investigated. His incompetence is getting to the highest level.”

GRIDCo blamed the power cut on what it called “power swings”.

The company in a statement said the problem arose from the Cote d'Ivoire interconnection with Ghana leaving several parts of the country in darkness.

The disturbances began around 3 pm and affected parts of the country only begun getting power after 6 pm on Tuesday.

The Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) also reported a challenge resulting in a complete outage at the Tamale Bulk Supply Point (BSP) which supplies the entire Tamale township and its environs.

The concerns over the debts prompted the Senior Staff and the Divisional Union of GRIDCo to withdraw emergency services.

The Senior Staff and the Divisional Union also expressed concern with debt owed the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), the Volta Aluminum Company (VALCO) and Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo).

The staff also plan to strike if the debts owed the company are not settled by December 4, 2019.