Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) will begin publishing power outage schedules at shorter, more frequent intervals as ongoing restoration works at the Akosombo Hydroelectric Plant continue to shift rapidly, Energy and Green Transition Minister John Abdulai Jinapor has announced.
According to Mr Jinapor, the evolving nature of repairs at Akosombo has made it difficult to maintain the usual long-term load-shedding timetable, as generation levels change within hours depending on work progress and system recovery.
“But because it is fluid, because it’s not like the regular load shedding, where you are aware that for a foreseeable period of time, you cannot restore power. We cannot do weekly publications. In fact, engineers are working around the clock. Within this week, they are pushing to restore all the plans back online. And so we can only provide you with very short interval periods.”
Speaking at a government accountability forum, he said the situation is different from routine load management, where outages are pre-planned and fixed.
“We would not live in denial. When we face challenges, we will tell Ghanaians,” he said.
He explained that even within the same day, outage schedules had to be revised as additional generation capacity came back online, citing an example where a timetable issued in the morning covering 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. had to be updated later in the day after about 140 megawatts of power was restored.
Mr Jinapor said ECG will now issue more regular updates rather than weekly schedules to better reflect the rapidly changing situation.
He added that the updates are being coordinated with the Ministry of Information to ensure wider public dissemination and clarity for affected consumers.
The Energy Minister also disclosed that he has instructed the ECG Managing Director to ensure consistent and timely communication across all regions.
Mr Jinapor further indicated that President John Dramani Mahama has directed him to maintain full transparency in communicating developments around the power situation.
He said the directive is aimed at ensuring public trust as the government works to stabilise the electricity supply following disruptions caused by the Akosombo plant fire.
The minister noted that engineers are working continuously to restore full generation capacity, to return all affected plants to normal operation within the week.
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