Parliament must summon GRIDCo, Energy Minister over recurring blackouts – Adomako-Mensah

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The Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Energy Committee, Collins Adomako-Mensah, is calling for the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) and the Energy Minister to appear before Parliament to explain the recurring nationwide power outages.His call follows Thursday morning’s widespread blackout, the second major disruption to the national power system within a space of a month.Mr Adomako-Mensah, in an interview on Joy FM’s Top Story on Thursday, August 20, said the frequency of the outages is a serious cause for concern and requires Parliament to demand clear answers from the agencies responsible for the country’s power transmission system.“I’m just hoping that as Parliament reconvenes on an emergency situation for Monday, I just spoke to my chairman. I think we have to call GRIDCo and the Minister to appear before the Energy Committee to give us exactly where the problems are,” he said.He said although power was restored relatively quickly after both incidents, the repeated disruptions demonstrate the need for Parliament to establish exactly what is going wrong within the power system.Mr Adomako-Mensah also disclosed that the Energy Committee has not been presented with the report on the earlier power system incident, despite GRIDCo indicating that the report had been submitted to the Energy Minister.He said the committee had only seen commentaries about the report on social media and news platforms and was therefore unable to independently assess its findings.According to him, when GRIDCo appeared before the committee in connection with an audit report, members questioned the company about the findings of the investigation.GRIDCo reportedly indicated that the report had been submitted to the Minister and had ruled out sabotage as a cause of the earlier incident.Mr Adomako-Mensah, however, said the “lack of access to the full report makes it difficult for Parliament to properly assess the causes of the disruptions and determine whether the recommended corrective measures have been implemented.”He said the issue has become even more urgent following the latest blackout, which affected several parts of the country.He stressed that the recurring outages should concern every Ghanaian, given the importance of reliable electricity to businesses, households and essential services.