The Western Regional Public Relations Officer of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Philip Osei Bonsu, has assured members of the public and various stakeholders in the December 7 elections, that power supply will not be interrupted during the period of the election.
Mr. Osei Bonsu told citifmonline.com that, the Western Regional office of the ECG; has commenced the processes leading to the implementation of the nationwide contingency plan for Election Day; recently announced by the headquarters of the power distributor.
At a recent news conference, the ECG assured Ghanaians that the country has enough generation to meet customers’ demand.
It thus explained that recent outages that consumers experienced had nothing to do with generation short fall, and that the outages were distribution-related challenges.
This they say has been dealt with following the completion of planned maintenance works and various replacements of weak links.
“Going forward, the issue of electricity availability during the election has become a crucial one. Subsequently, the Electricity Company of Ghana want to assure Ghanaians that we will work extra hard to ensure that electricity is available to all our customers before, during and after the elections.”
In announcing its backup plan for Election Day, the company said, it will deploy its engineers with vehicles and equipment to man very critical installations.
“Although we are guaranteeing reliable power supply, there can sometimes be unforeseen or unplanned outages. What is most important during such outage experience is our rapid response, hence, the deployment of our engineers to such strategic points so they can promptly respond to emergencies to reduce the intervention time to the barest minimum.”
The ECG also announced a full collaboration with the Ministry of Power (MoP) for the provision of constant power on the Election Day, following an assurance from the Ministry that they will provide solar facilities (solar lamps, pole mounted solar illumination) at all the polling stations on the Day.
“At the Constituency Collation Centres, the ECG will make available generators that will serve as a backup in case of any untoward situation (unforeseen outage).”
It also announced that at the national collation centre in Accra, it will make available a heavy duty mobile generator which will be connected to the centre as a backup.
The Company believes that with all these measures being put in place, they are going to have a very reliable, stable power supply during this very crucial national exercise.
On the Western Region’s preparation, the Regional Public Relations Officer of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Philip Osei Bonsu, said “We have met all district managers from our 11 operational districts in the region. They have been tasked to select engineers in their respective districts who will be deployed with vehicles and equipment to man critical installations on Election Day. This is to ensure that there is prompt response in the event of an unplanned outage. As a backup measure, all district managers have been tasked to make generators available at all constituency coalition centres.”
“The ECG in the Western Region assures all our stakeholders that we remain committed to our pledge of putting in extra work to ensure that power is available to our customers before, during and after the elections. ECG also recognizes the importance of elections to our democracy; as such management and staff in the region are committed to make the necessary sacrifices to ensure stable supply before, during and after the elections.
Although engineers will be patrolling ECG’s installations, the company is encouraging Ghanaians to be on the lookout and report to the nearest Police Station/security agents, ECG office or ECG call centre via 0302 611611, any suspicious persons loitering around its facilities for immediate action to avert any untoward situation.
By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
