A prominent member of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kojo Nsafoah-Poku, has asserted that Ghana’s recent power outages are primarily caused by weather-related demand and technical limitations, rather than financial issues.
Speaking on Metro TV, the Executive Director of the National Strategic Transport Energy Policy Research (NSTEPR) argued that seasonal temperature shifts significantly dictate the country’s electricity consumption. “Our weather is the reason our lights go off,” he stated.
Kojo Nsafoah-Poku explained that Ghana’s hottest months—typically between December and April—trigger spikes in demand as households rely more heavily on cooling appliances.
“When the weather is hot, everybody puts on everything at the same time, and you overload the system,..The reason this problem recurs every year is the peak period between January and April.”He noted
According to the NPP stalwart, this pressure on the national grid eases significantly during the rainy season: “In June, July, August, and September, the weather is cooler, and fewer people use air conditioning,” Poku explained.
He added that the grid can see a drop in demand of up to 300 megawatts during these months, providing power producers with a vital window to conduct essential maintenance work.
