PDS announces more power outages to begin Friday, April 26

The Power Distribution Services (PDS) Ghana Ltd. has announced that it will cut off power in parts of the country on Friday. The outage will be a result of scheduled maintenance works to improve service delivery.

The power outage will last from 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM on Friday, April 26.

The affected areas include Adentan, Dodowa, Pantang, Oyarifa, Teiman, Ayi Mensah, Abokobi, Ashaley Botwe, Agbogba, Redco Flats and Madina.

“PDS regrets the inconvenience that will arise out of this exercise,” a PDS statement reads.”

Earlier this month, PDS released a list of areas that would experience outages. Areas including Tarkwa, Bogoso, Asawinso and Juaboso, experienced a string of intermittent power outages spanning a week.

At the time, PDS said that the outages was by the order of the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo). The request was ordered to enable GRIDcCo to construct a 330kV overhead line between Kumasi and Aboadze.

PDS took over the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in February. Its website has since been shut down.

In 2016, ECG’s Ashanti regional public relations officer, Erasmus Baidoo, told Al Jazeera that one of the major problems with Ghana’s power supply is because “people try to cheat the system.”

He explained that only approximately 40% of ECG (now PDS) customers pay their bills, causing the company to be in millions of dollars in debt.

“What about the 60% [of customers that don’t pay]?” Baidoo asked. “Are you going to arrest everybody? Will you deny them power because they have not paid their bills?”

Last year, Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko debunked rumours that dumsor was making a comeback.

“We’re not in an era of ‘dum koraaa.’ The lights may go off as we are witnessing, but I can assure you that, that long period that we envisaged that our opponents think that they want to capitalize on, that period will never come because we’re managing the system,” he said. “We have people here to manage the system, and we can give assurance to Ghanaians that the situation now is very much under control.”

Source: Myjoyonline.com