Since its establishment, the company has extended its transmission lines from 4,000 kilometres to more than 5,000 kilometres, while the number of sub-stations has also increased from 52 to 67.

Work on a transmission line from Aboadze through Dunkwaw in the Western Region to Kumasi in the Ashanti Region to link Burkina Faso is about 85 per cent complete.

Event

The Area Manager for the Southern Network of GRIDCo, Ing. Anthony Godzi, disclosed this when members of the Energy and Petroleum Network (E&PN), a group of journalists who report on specialised sectors, toured facilities in the southern substation of GRIDCo to update their knowledge on current trends and factors accounting for the relative power stability in the country last Saturday.

The journalists were taken through the various operational processes of the company, terminologies, challenges and strategies to overcome them.

Prospects

Ing. Godzi said GRIDCo was positioning itself to meet the high energy demands from countries such as Mali, Niger, The Gambia, Sierra Leone and Senegal as part of a West African power pool programme.

He said GRIDCo was ready to help Ghana achieve its dream of becoming a net exporter of power in the sub-region.

According to him, the company had the capacity, facilities, expertise and reliability to realise that vision.

Challenges

Ing. Godzi, however, said illegal mining and bush burning activities posed a threat to GRIDCo’s high-tension pylons.

“The illegal miners deliberately dig under the towers, unaware or aware of the threat to national asset and their own lives. You will see the pylons standing, but beneath them are tunnels. Some even go to the extent of removing metals or the angle irons from the pylons for scrap, leading to collapse of the pylons in the process,” he indicated.