Samuel Dubik Mahama
The Western Regional branch of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is leaving no stone unturned to reduce vegetation related damages caused to the company’s network.
According to ECG, the vegetation related damages eventually lead to power outages which occur mostly in the rainy seasons.
The regional office has therefore invested GH¢6,239,969.00 in its vegetation management activities for this year aimed at reducing vegetation related damages.
The Regional General Manager of the ECG, Ing. Emmanuel J. Ofori disclosed this to journalists.
Ing. Ofori explained that the move is one of the company’s efforts to ensure reliability of power to its customers, particularly those in the forest areas.
“Ensuring trees that interfere with our lines are pruned regularly is part of a bigger approach to maintain a reliable and stable distribution of power on our network throughout the region,” he stated.
He added, “When we reduce down time caused by outages due to natural occurrences such as vegetation related interferences, it brings relief to both commercial and residential customers who rely on power for economic growth.”
Ing. Ofori appealed to commercial farm owners in the region to be sensitive to the plight of communities affected by outage caused by commercial trees on their plantation, by allowing the ECG prune potential rogue trees.
He also said the ECG enjoyed a very stable network in previous years, and attributed it to early vegetation management activities and the deployment of modern technology to identify faults.
“The deployment of drones to obtain images of suspected faults on portions of the ECG’s network which were not easily accessible by road, saw a sharp decline in down time caused by outages, especially in the Western North area,” he pointed out.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi