PURC exposes ECG for falsely attributing ‘dumsor’ to overloaded transformers

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has refuted recent statements made by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) regarding the causes of widespread power outages across the country.

ECG had asserted that the main culprit behind the erratic power supply was the overloading of transformers, citing a staggering count of 630 overloaded transformers.

Additionally, ECG pointed fingers at the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), accusing it of making sudden demands to cut power supply, thus hindering ECG’s ability to create a load management schedule for consumers.

However, PURC’s examination of the data provided by ECG tells a different story. Out of 715 transformer details submitted, only 31 were found to be loaded less than 70%, while 595 operated between 70-100% capacity, and 89 were loaded above 100%.

Moreover, PURC’s investigation revealed that out of 647 reported outage incidents occurring between 7 pm and 11 pm, only 3 were planned transformer-related outages.

The majority of outages during this time frame were attributed to GRIDCo’s load management activities and unrelated faults.

In a report issued on April 15, 2024, PURC stated, “ECG’s attribution of the outages between 7 pm and 11 pm to transformer overload was therefore not factually accurate.”

The commission announced its ongoing investigation into the true causes of the power outages.

Meanwhile, former board members of ECG who served from January 1st to March 18th, 2024, including the current ECG Managing Director, Samuel Mahama Dubik, and eight others, face regulatory charges totaling approximately GHȼ5.9 million for overseeing power outages without providing prior notification to consumers.