VRA, ECG assures of stable power supply

OFFICIALS of the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) have given the assurance that electricity supply will be stable for the election period and the rest of the year.
The two organisations said they had made adequate preparations to ensure that the counting of votes by the Electoral Commission (EC), which is to begin at 5 p.m. and continue for some hours, will not be disrupted by any power outages, even if counting should continue deep into the night.
The Director of Special Duties of the VRA, Mr Kofi Asante Okai, told the Daily Graphic in an interview that “as far as the VRA is concerned there is enough energy and capacity to supply the ECG for the rest of this year and next year”.
That, he said, was due to higher than average inflow of water into the Volta reservoir at the end of the flood season, and it was their expectation that the combination of hydro and thermal production could provide stable power for the rest of the year.
“There has been adequate rainfall and we do not anticipate any power outage from the generating plant”, he emphasised and explained that though it was their responsibility to generate power, it was also the responsibility of the Grid Company of Ghana (GRIDCO) to transport power to ECG which in turn supplies consumers around most parts of the country, and expressed the belief that they would also stand up to the task.
The Director of Operations for ECG, Mr Andrew Tonto Bafour said the ECG had made adequate preparations towards ensuring that the election period, particularly during the counting of the electoral votes was not disrupted by power outages.
He therefore gave the assurance that there would be a constant supply of power throughout the election period, particularly during the counting of votes.
Mr Bafour said ECG would not do anything to hamper the supply of power since it was their civic responsibility to ensure that electricity was available for counting to go on even if it enters deep into the night.
“Prior to the elections we have been doing preventive maintenance on all equipment and sub-stations, and that includes clearing of weeds around the stations to prevent the disruption of stable supply of power”, he disclosed.
The director explained that usually they had people on standby to restore power supply anytime the lights went out but since these elections were special they intended to beef up their personnel at all the sub-stations to ensure a rapid response to any emergencies during the electoral process.
According to him if anything was beyond their control, they would make the public aware and also inform the EC to prepare towards that to avoid any complications.
The ECG, he stated, supplied about six regions which were the Ashanti, Western, Central, Eastern, Volta and the Greater Accra and added that the ECG had about 5,000 personnel with almost 2,000 in Accra alone.
He however explained that GRIDCO, which receives the power from VRA, had to ensure that there was enough power for ECG to supply to the regions.
Mr Bafour also said they had made arrangements to ensure that all their personnel, including those who may be on shift duty at the sub-stations exercise their franchise.
He said Sunday, December 7, 2008, the day on which the Ghanaians would vote, was a good day because usually the pressure on the plants was not much since a lot of commercial activities were down on Sundays.