Parts of Sunyani and its adjoining communities have been plunged into power outages following a fault on one of the largest transformers at the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) switchyard in Sunyani.
According to GRIDCo, the fault occurred on Transformer two (T2), the largest transformer with a capacity of 33 megavolt amperes (MVA), at the Sunyani switchyard last Tuesday evening.
Businesses in the affected areas, particularly those that rely heavily on electricity for production, have come to a standstill, disrupting commercial activities and causing losses for operators.
No timeline
At a press conference in Sunyani last Wednesday, the Sunyani Area Manager of the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo), Odoi Addo, said the company was still assessing the situation and could not provide a timeline for when the problem would be fixed.
He explained that the company had to run a series of tests to determine the extent of damage and assess the situation, adding that, given all those issues, they could not provide timelines for the transformer’s restoration.
When the Daily Graphic visited the scene, engineers from GRIDCo were on site, working to repair the damaged transformer.
In the interim, GRIDCo, in collaboration with the NEDCo, is actively working to redirect loads to a 20 MVA transformer that also serves the Sunyani township.
In that regard, residents in Sunyani and its environs will endure intermittent power supply and load shedding for some time, as the two companies work to finalise a load-shedding timetable.
Mr Addo said residents would have power for only eight hours per day, explaining that managing the load would help to keep customers out of total darkness.
Critical institutions
He, however, explained that critical institutions such as the Sunyani Teaching Hospital and the Third Infantry Battalion, Liberation Barracks had a constant supply since yesterday.
Mr Addo said the transformer supplied the majority of power in Sunyani, “So as we speak, we only supply about 42 per cent capacity in Sunyani township”.
He advised customers and consumers not to misuse power, urging them to switch off appliances when not in use.
“We should manage the little power that we have. So that if we see any reserve capacity, we can hook up with other people who are off,” he said.
Incident
Narrating the incident, Mr Addo said the incident occurred around 4:00 p.m., when operators detected an unusual sound from the switchyard, accompanied by smoke and oil spillage around one of the transformers.
He said the operators immediately switched off the power supply to safeguard life and property.
Mr Addo explained that a deeper technical assessment later revealed that one of the power transformers at the yard had developed a fault, making it unable to supply electricity to parts of Sunyani and surrounding communities.
Assessment
The acting Area Manager of GRIDCo for Sunyani and Techiman, Etse Mawuli, said they started their assessment yesterday, soon after the incident and had worked throughout the night.
He said the company had planned to conduct a thorough assessment of the situation and fix it as soon as possible.
Mr Mawuli said the engineers would continue working day and night to ensure the transformer was repaired without delay.
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Source:
www.graphic.com.gh