Tumu, Ghana – The Tumu Gridco Substation has the capacity to supply over 60MW of electricity to the township and surrounding communities, but only 5MW is currently consumed daily, with an occasional 1MW increase from KEDAN Ltd., according to Dr. Shaffic Suleman, Executive Secretary of the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC).

During an inspection visit, Dr. Shaffic praised Ghanaian engineers for their expertise and urged investors to take advantage of the excess electricity supply by establishing factories in the area.

“Tumu is privileged to have access to this massive excess electricity supply without major consumption capacity! I pray that business investors will take advantage of this opportunity and build additional factories in the area,” he said.

However, the visit also revealed challenges affecting power stability. Faulty reclosers on the Tumu-Wellembelle-Nabulo transmission lines cause frequent outages, but the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) is working on a solution.

“It was observed that Tumu-Wellembelle-Nabulo transmission lines reclosers are faulty, and as a result, any slight problem on the line causes power outages that feed back into the Tumu township,” Dr. Suleman stated. He added, “Fortunately, the NEDCo regional manager has taken up the responsibility, and plans are far advanced to replace the reclosers as soon as possible to bring power stability to the area.”

Additionally, he highlighted the need for interconnecting the two 30MW transformers at the substation to ensure continuous power supply during maintenance.

“In the substation, there are two 30MW transformers (60MW combined), but these two transformers need to be interconnected so that when one is down for maintenance, the other can keep power supply ongoing,” he explained.

Dr. Shaffic expressed optimism that once the faulty reclosers are replaced and the transformers interconnected, power supply will be more stable, creating a conducive environment for businesses in the Sissala enclave.

“When the reclosers are replaced and the two transformers are interconnected, there will be a more stable supply of electricity in the Tumu township and surrounding communities. Investors and business owners should be encouraged to relocate or build factories here to take advantage of the excess power supply capacity,” he emphasized.

Source: Sissala Radio