ECG Lied When It Cited Overloaded Transformers for Dumsor- PURC

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) has found the Electricity Company of Ghana lied to customers when it attributed the erratic power supply to overloaded transformers across the country.

This was contained in a letter addressed to the Board of the Company on April 15, 2024, after reviewing detailed incident reports of power outages for the period January 01, 2024, to March 18.

“The Commission requested data on ECG transformers to validate public statements made by ECG attributing system-wide outages in the distribution network to transformer overloads.

Evaluation of the data showed that out of 715 transformer details submitted, 31 were loaded less than 70%, 595 were loaded between 70-100% and 89 were loaded above 100%.

However, the outages were found unrelated to overloaded transformers.

“The analyses showed that the majority of the outages between 7 pm to 11 pm were a result of load management operations by GRIDCo and faults unrelated to overloaded transformers. ECG’s attribution of the outages between 7 pm and 11 pm to transformer overload was therefore not factually accurate.”

The Commission has since initiated investigations into the findings.

Background
The ECG in a notice on March 11 said 630 distribution transformers within communities across their operational areas had been identified to be full due to increased demand, noting the development may result in blown fuses and broken conductors causing outages during the peak load period from 7 pm to 11 pm in the affected areas.

It added that it is upgrading transformers with other projects ongoing to ensure a reliable power supply

Source: Opemsuo