The Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) has downplayed calls for a load shedding time table in the wake of recent power cuts across the country.

According to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GRIDco, Jonathan Amoako, the recent power outages in Ghana is different from the power crisis experienced some years ago which required a load shedding table. 

In an interview on Accra based Citi FM, on Wednesday, the CEO asserted that the recent power cuts are too mild to necessitate a load shedding table.  

“Unlike what we call the dumsor era, while projecting into the future, you will know that consistently you have a shortfall of between 150 and 200 megawatts, going on into the future then you can issue a schedule and say this is the challenge so you will go off and customer B will go on,” he explained on the Citi Breakfast Show.

The current “shortfall is not persistent or consistent,” Mr Amoako Baah added.

The lack of fuel for plants in the western and eastern enclaves had been identified as the cause of the shortfalls, according to GRIDCo.

For example, there has been no gas from Nigeria to supply the eastern enclave’s gas-powered power plants.

For the power cuts last Saturday, GRIDCo attributed the blackout to a system disturbance on its 330KV line.

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Most recently, GRIDCO said the power outages were due to a performance test on a new regulating and metering gas station in Tema.

Mr Amoako Baah also stressed that there needed to be consistency in the sector to curb the erratic power supply.

“You resolve dumsor not just by buying fuel today. If you buy fuel today and tomorrow you don’t buy fuel, the light will go off. So there has to be that effort to consistently ensure that fuel is available for the generating plants.”

He added that power will be stable “if there is an effort to ensure the fuel is always available.”

The Minister of Energy, John Peter Amewu said the recent power outages in Ghana cannot be attributed to financial issues as the sector has enough monetary backing to generate power for the country.

He noted that plans are underway to solve the problems facing the energy sector, and that the current situation was far from dreaded “dumsor” experienced years ago.

“I can assure you that, a lot of measures have been put in place for the stable supply of power. I want to get to my room and see the lights on if once a while you witness light outs, it has nothing to do with power generations…Dumsor is a thing of the past. This is what someone has done to this country and we must make sure we move from it”.