Business owners in parts of the Greater Accra Region that will be affected by the Electricity Company of Ghana’s (ECG) planned load shedding exercise, want the power distributor to stick to their eight-day schedule.

They fear an extension of the load-shedding exercise will affect their businesses severely.

The ECG, on Tuesday, April 20, 2021, released its timetable for the load shedding, which is expected to commence from May 10 to May 17.

The company says the exercise is to enable its engineers to expedite work on the Pokuase Bulk Supply Point.

But some business owners in the affected areas told Citi News: “We are not even prepared for this. But we are praying it is so. It shouldn’t exceed eight days.”

“It will actually affect us if we have meat in our freezers and there is a power outage. The load shedding should be less than eight days. Already, we have low voltage, so if everything will be okay after the eight days, we will be happy,” one other worried trader said.

ECG has explained that it needs to tie in the Pokuase Bulk Supply Point (BSP) to GRIDCo’s 330kv transmission line, hence the need to shut down the transmission line, which will affect the Mallam Bulk Supply Point that supplies power to many households.

Power will be interrupted between 6:00am and 6:00pm, as well as 6:00pm and 6:00am in more than forty communities, which have been placed in four different groups.

The outage will be experienced by two alternating groups each day until the end of the exercise.

Some areas to be affected include Awoshie, Nsakina, Dansoman, Ashalaja, Tuba, Abossey Okai, Dansoman, Tuba, Pokuase ACP Estates, Amasaman, Taifa, Ofankor, Kokrobite, Fadama, Israel and Abeka market.