The Executive Secretary of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Dr. Shafic Suleman, as part of his Upper West regional tour to familiarize and engage with stakeholders, paid an inspection visit to the Tumu GRIDCo substation on Saturday, 15th March 2025.
Mr. Baniachin Bawisi Stephen, the operator on duty and Mr. Julius Kpongor, the Protection and Control Technician at the Tumu GRIDCo Substation, explained that the Substation can deliver over 60MW of power to the Tumu township and surrounding communities. However, only 5MW is consumed daily in the entire area. The GRIDCo officials indicated that, occasionally, KEDAN Ltd, consumes an additional 1MW, bringing the total consumption to 6MW.
According to Mr. Stephen Baniachin, the substation has two 30MW transformers (60MW combined), which have to be interconnected such that when one is out for maintenance, the other can keep supplying power to the community. He indicated that the biggest challenge currently is on the Tumu-Wellembelle and Gwollu-Burkina Faso routes. He indicated that, the auto reclosers on the transmission line are faulty, and as a result, any slight challenge on the line causes power outages which feeds back into the Tumu township.
Mr. Baniachin impressed on the Executive Secretary to discuss the issue with their the GRIDCo Corporate Affairs Office to take all necessary steps to resolve this challenge on the line to help protect the investment made by the government.
Dr. Suleman called on NEDCo and GRIDCo to provide the needed interconnection of the two transformers for a more stable power supply in the Tumu township. The NEDCo Area manager on his response indicated that plans are far advanced to replace the reclosers to bring power supply stability to the Wellembelle-Gwollu and Tumu townships.
Dr. Suleman emphasized that Tumu is privileged to have excess electricity supply capacity without major consumption capacity. He, therefore, called for the revamping of the Cotton Jenery in Tumu and other factories to be established to make use of the excess power, which will in turn create jobs for the youth and improve on the socio-economic development of the area and the country as a whole
