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

Ghanaian Parliament’s Energy Committee Chair, Collins Adomako-Mensah, has urged the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) and the Energy Minister to testify before the legislative body regarding the persistent nationwide blackouts. This plea came in response to a significant power outage on Thursday morning, the second major disruption in a single month.

During an interview on Joy FM’s Top Story, Adomako-Mensah highlighted the seriousness of the recurring outages, stating they constitute a major concern and warrant detailed answers from the entities responsible for the nation's power transmission. He expressed his hope that Parliament would convene an emergency session on Monday to question GRIDCo and the Minister on the underlying issues.

Despite the relatively swift restoration of power following both incidents, Adomako-Mensah pointed out the repeated disruptions as evidence that Parliament must scrutinize the root cause of the system's failures. He revealed that the Energy Committee has yet to receive the full report on the earlier outage, notwithstanding GRIDCo's claim that it had been submitted to the Minister.

The committee currently possesses only commentary about the report on social media and news platforms, limiting their ability to independently evaluate its contents.

According to Adomako-Mensah, the committee's inability to access the complete report has hindered their capacity to fully understand the reasons behind the power disruptions and to verify if the proposed corrective actions have been executed. The issue has become even more pressing following the latest blackout, which impacted several regions across the country.

Adomako-Mensah emphasized that the recurring power outages have a direct impact on every Ghanaian, considering how critical electricity is for businesses, homes, and essential services.