Concerns about the Electricity Company of Ghana’s (ECG) purported inconsistencies in its public declarations about the recent power outages around the country have been raised by the Institute for Energy Security (IES).

Although there is uneven power supply, the government and the ECG claim there isn’t load shedding and blame a few technical problems, such as the recent repair of about 630 overloaded power transformers.

The ECG said in a statement on March 29 that there is no load shedding occurring anywhere and that “any customer who is suffering power outage is due to a “localised malfunction.”

On April 1, however, the IES expressed outrage at ECG’s “misleading statement” in a statement that was signed and made public by its Executive Director, Nana Amoasi VII.

“In the recent statement, the ECG sought to equate “stable national power supply” to “stable national grid,” both of which are non-existent in our present power sub-sector.”

“The IES is appalled by the extent to which the ECG is permitting the powers that be to frustrate its eligible business and to embarrass itself in the eye of the public. These public relation (PR) gimmicks by the ECG are unwarranted, disgusting, and diversionary; capable of denting the reputation and credibility of the institution,” the IES stated.

When the ECG has been getting less than 85% of the power needed to properly meet its customers’ demand from GRIDCo since the beginning of the year, the IES questioned the likelihood of a stable national power supply.

“Again, one wonders the capacity of the ECG to confidently suggest that Ghana has a stable national grid,” it said, adding that “Where the power sector finds itself today, the best utility to speak to issues of power supply stability and grid stability Is the system operator the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo). Unfortunately, GRIDCo has gone mute, an attitude uncharacteristic of the entity.”