Minority demands ‘dumsor timetable’, insists crisis goes beyond Akosombo fire incident
The Minority in Parliament has challenged the government’s explanation of the ongoing power outages, insisting the crisis goes beyond the recent fire at an Akosombo substation.
The Minority in Parliament has challenged the government’s explanation of the ongoing power outages, insisting the crisis goes beyond the recent fire at an Akosombo substation.
Consequently, they are calling for a clear load-shedding timetable to help consumers plan for the power cuts.
The demand was made ahead of an expected address by the Energy Minister, John Jinapor, on the Government’s Accountability Series today.
A fire outbreak at the Akosombo facility reportedly damaged six switches, taking about 1,000 megawatts of power off the national grid and worsening outages across parts of Ashanti, Central, and Greater Accra regions.
However, Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Energy Committee, Collins Adomako Mensah, said the situation cannot be blamed solely on the incident.
“I’m not too sure it can entirely be attributed to what happened at Akosombo. Even before the Akosombo fire… the lights were not stable.”
He explained that earlier explanations from the government pointed to ongoing system upgrades.
“At the time, the government was telling us that they had to do some upgrades of some transformers just to stabilise the system,” he said.
According to him, the fire has only worsened an already fragile situation.
“What happened at Akosombo has just exacerbated the situation and made it even more precarious,” he said, adding that intermittent outages were already being experienced before the incident.
“The Akosombo incident would have worsened it because obviously there were some intermittent power outages even before the fire outbreak,” he added.
Mr Adomako Mensah said the immediate concern for consumers is the lack of clear communication and planning.
He urged the government to provide a proper load-shedding timetable to help households and businesses prepare adequately.
“The dumsor timetable will give you an indication that today is Monday; please be aware that by Wednesday, your light will be off, so you can plan,” he said.
“Unfortunately, we don’t get that. All we get is that transformers will be off… at the time we see those communications, they are already off,” he added.
He said that acknowledging the scale of the problem is the first step towards resolving it.
“For me, if you admit that there’s a problem, it’s a fair step to solving the problem,” he said.
He added that while the government may be reluctant to use the term ‘dumsor’, the reality on the ground is clear.
“If you go home and your light is off… how do we describe it? For us, the lights are off. And for us, it’s just dumsor,” he stated.
Mr Adomako Mensah also highlighted the impact on businesses, citing losses due to unplanned outages.
“This is crisis management. Admit that there is dumsor… and in the meantime, give a timetable so people can plan,” he urged.
The Minority also criticised a recent leadership shake-up within the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in the Ashanti Region, warning that it risks being seen as politically motivated.
While acknowledging that suspensions during investigations can be justified, Mr Adomako Mensah said comments from government communicators have raised concerns.
“The connotation is the unfortunate part,” he said, adding that public commentary has linked the move to partisan interests.
He pointed to earlier remarks by a regional party chairman suggesting changes in the ECG leadership, arguing that the timing fuels suspicion.
“To have the minister take that course then feeds into the propaganda that he’s heeding the instruction from the Ashanti regional minister, which is very, very unfortunate,” he said.
He urged authorities to avoid politicising technical institutions, saying that appointments in the energy sector should be based on competence rather than party affiliation.
“Let’s allow institutions to work so we leave out the politicisation. If it happens that way, we don’t get headway with the solution,” he said.
