The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has installed a mobile substation at Ablekuma in Accra to curtail the erratic interruptions in the supply of electricity to its customers living within the area and its environs.
The mobile substation is to avert challenges such as low voltage and power outages which have affected residents and businesses in the area.
The Accra West Regional Engineer for ECG, Emmanuel Ankrah, disclosed that the over GH¢450 million substation which houses about 20 MVA of power, was being installed on temporary basis to meet the electric power demands of the area.
He said the Ablekuma community in recent years has seen massive growth in infrastructure without equal growth in electricity supply.
Mr Ankrah explained that due to the massive growth, the electricity supply could not meet the demands of the people living within Ablekuma and its environs.
“We came earlier to investigate the situation and after the investigation, we saw that they needed another station to boost up the supply and that is exactly what we have done here,” Mr Ankrah stated.
He said the ECG feeders were overloaded which led to frequent trippings of power adding that the new 11Kv feeders set up would relieve the overloaded Joma and Ablekuma feeders.
He said beneficiary communities included Pentecost junction, Agape township, Joma, Ablekuma, Afuaman, Oduman and its environs.
Mr Ankrah disclosed that plans were far advance in securing a land to instala permanent substation at Anyaa to take over from the temporary one.
He stated that the temporal substation would be in use as long as the permanent was not ready, adding that there were issues concerning the land secured.
“When we are done dealing with the land issues, construction will begin which will take about two years to complete so when we are done with the new one then we will retire this one,” he explained.
Mr Ankrah mentioned that the mobile substation would improve reliability and quality of supply to customers and increase social-economic activities within the beneficiary communities.
He also said it would help improve revenue for the corporation while increasing customer satisfaction index within Ablekuma and theregion.
He appealed to community leaders to assist the company with regards to land acquisition, especially with regards to installation of permanent substations, adding that it was the community that would benefit from such projects.
“It is our appeal that in areas that we have challenges with land acquisition like Anyaa and Bortianor, the community leaders should help us resolve it and get land to install substations to benefit the community,” he pleaded.
BY JEMIMA ESINAM KUATSINU
