Ghana’s power transmission company and system operator, Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), has detailed how the power distribution company responsible for power supply in the southern Ghana, ECG, disregarded its instruction which posed significant risk to the power stability across the country.
According to GRIDCo, the non-compliance to its instruction by ECG compelled it to take feeders out of service to prevent system collapse.
In a letter to Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Energy Minister of the Republic of Ghana, and signed by the CEO of GRIDCo, Ing Ebenezer Kofi Essienyi cited instances where ECG engineers refused to comply with GRIDCo’s load management instructions.
The letter stated that on March 20, 2024, Peak Hours the National System Control Center (SCC) had to take Tafo Feeders out of service due to ECG’s failure to properly implement load management instructions.
GRIDCo said this resulted in a system frequency drop to a critical level of 49.47Hz.
GRIDCo said similar thing happened on March 21, 2024, during Peak Hours when ECG refused to comply with its instructions. This forced the National System Control Centre (SCC) to disconnect feeders in Tema, Winneba, Kasoa and Kumasi.
“This action was taken to prevent system collapse after the frequency dropped to a concerning 49.29Hz,” GRIDCo said..
“When these emergency disconnections occur, ECG publishes customer notices attributing the loss of power supply to GRIDCo, which is not an accurate description of the current situation. Furthermore, ECG’s disregard for load management instructions is a clear violation of the regulations.”
As a result, GRIDCo urged the Minister to intervene to ensure ECG complied with the issuance of a load-shedding timetable.
“We, therefore, bring this to your kind attention, Honourable Minister, and seek your urgent intervention to ensure cooperation from ECG with respect to load management operations,” GRIDCo said.
However, ECG has responded to GRIDCo’s concerns and expressed shock that GRIDCo portrayed it as uncooperative.
ECG in a letter signed by its Managing Director Samuel Dubik Mansubir Mahama and forwarded to the Energy Minister sighted by Myjoyonline, ECG provided detailed statistics on load management requests received from GRIDCo between January and March 2024, demonstrating instances where requests were received shortly before peak or off-peak periods, limiting ECG’s ability to plan and inform customers adequately.
“It is a fact that GRIDCO routinely directs ECG’s System Operators to drop load at some of our Bulk Supply Points (BSPs), but the issue has been the inadequacy between the time these requests are received and the time these requests must be effected to sustain the integrity of the power system and also for ECG to inform its customers.
“It worthy to note that, between January and March 2024, sixty-four (64No.) requests were received from GRIDCo for load management. Out of this, forty (40No.) were for peak periods (18:00 – 24:00 hrs) and twenty-four (24No.) for off-peak (06:00 – 18:00 hrs) load management.
“Out of the forty (40no.) peak load requests, thirty-five (35No.) (88%) of them were received within an hour to the peak period. There were only five (5No) (12%) instances where ECG received the request within 2-3 hours of the peak period.
“Out of the Twenty-Four (24No.) off-peak load requests, three (3No) (13%) of them were received within 30 minutes to the off-peak period while the remaining Twenty-One (21 No.) (87%) instances were received far into the off-peak period,” portion of the letter reads.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
