Executive Director of the Africa Center for Energy Policy (ACEP), Ben Boakye has expressed concerns about the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and its resistance to regulation.
This comes in light of a letter sent by the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) to the Minister of Energy, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh.
According to Boakye, GRIDCo’s letter serves to highlight ECG’s failure to adhere to directives, particularly regarding load-shedding management timetables issued by the National System Control Center (NSCC).
Speaking on 3FM’s mid-day news with Beatrice Adu, Boakye emphasised that this issue is not new among industry stakeholders.
“They want the Minister to take direct responsibility and call all the others to order. That is essentially what they have done.
He added “This gives a feeling that ECG is becoming ungovernable in our space. They are supposed to be regulated by the regulator and also to see GRIDCo indicate, there are L.Is or provisions that actually state that when they inform the ECG to protect the infrastructure they should act accordingly. So why they have refused to actually act to save the grid, it can only be guessed which is not good for the maintenance of the infrastructure that we have spent so much money on,” Ben Boakye stated.
Boakye further pointed out the significance of the Minister taking direct responsibility to ensure compliance within the sector, as outlined in regulations and provisions meant to safeguard infrastructure.
He warned against ECG’s seeming disregard for such protocols, which could jeopardize the maintenance of crucial infrastructure that has already incurred substantial investment.