Deputy Energy Minister Richard Gyan Mensah has blamed recent power disruptions on a sharp surge in electricity demand, revealing that overloaded transformers have become a key pressure point in the system.
Speaking on PM Express with Evans Mensah on Tuesday, he said, “within the beginning of the year, demand quickly shot up.”
He explained that “demand shooting up means that the sources of distribution, there’ll be a lot more pressure on the source of distribution,” adding that “one of the sources is the transport transformers.”
According to him, the surge has had direct consequences in several communities.
“So in some areas, the transformers became overloaded,” he said, noting that investigations confirmed the trend during the period of outages.
He also pointed to response efforts by power operators.
“Most of the cases that came to attention that has been very prompt response to response time, to the complaints or the challenge that may have come up within those areas,” he stated.
In a striking personal disclosure, the Deputy Minister said he deliberately chose to experience the outages firsthand.
“Immediately I was given my position as the deputy Energy Minister, I took off the generator… I took it off,” he revealed. “Because when there’s a light off, when the light goes off, I want to experience it.”
He described how he tracks outages in real time. “If my light goes off, I would quickly receive a call that, oh, our area, the light has gone off,” he said.
“Sometimes send a text message to them. I’ve seen that I’ve received reports that the lights have gone off within my area or this area.”
He added that even while moving around, he remains alert.
“Even when I drive through town, when I see it quickly, I send messages to them,” he said, explaining that updates often follow.
“They get back to me that, oh, they have done this… And yesterday, I was monitoring… immediately the power comes back, they would report back to me that the power is back.”
Pressed by Evans Mensah on whether he truly lives without backup power, he replied, “Exactly,” confirming he sleeps in darkness like many Ghanaians.
He admitted the decision has not been easy at home. “For one year… I will be comfortable with it, but my wife will not be comfortable with that,” he said, adding, “these are the challenges I’ve gone through.”
The Minister said the move is driven by a need to better understand public frustration.
“People really… measure us by how they are able to get constant and reliable power,” he said. “I wanted to also be in that ordinary state to see when somebody’s light goes off, how it feels.”
He insisted the arrangement will remain until conditions improve. “I’m looking at improving the system when I know Ghanaians are okay, I’ll bring it back,” he said.
On alternatives like solar, he was cautious. “If I install solar, then you will feel what about an ordinary Ghanaian who doesn’t have what it takes to install solar?” he asked.
Recounting a recent experience, he said, “Last Saturday, for instance, I was home… between 6 am and about 12 pm and the light was off… even though I was calling Akosombo every now and then to check up on what’s happening.”
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