STRAIN ON THE GRID: We are consuming more electricity than projected — PURC
Ghana’s electricity grid is straining under the weight of a demand explosion that has surpassed every official projection, the Executive Secretary of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Dr. Shafic Suleman, has revealed.
This surge in demand, according to him, is happening at a pace that is challenging how the country plans and manages power supply.
Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Wednesday, about the recent power outages in some regions across the country, Dr. Shafic Suleman explained that Ghana’s power problems are not simply about faults, cables, or ageing transformers, but also includes an electricity consumption rate never prepared for.
Dr. Suleman elaborated that the baseload; the minimum level of electricity required to keep the national grid running at all times, has witnessed a “historically unprecedented jump,” over the past two years.
“Base load is generally the minimal power that is required to keep the system running at all times. From 2024 and early 2025, it was around 2,600 to 2,700 megawatts. Over the year it has escalated to 3,600. Now we are hitting towards 3,800. That’s a new phenomenon,” he revealed.
He further disclosed that peak load figures; the maximum demand placed on the grid at any single point during the day, are edging “dangerously close to the outer limits of our available supply.”
“You’re also now looking at the peak load. Peak load is really, really, really going high. We are experiencing new peak loads as high as 4,294 – 4,300 megawatts,” he said, “so, these numbers mean we’re almost at full capacity, we are now consuming more power, I mean, beyond what has been projected.”
According to GRIDCo’s 2025 Electricity Supply Plan, Ghana’s peak demand for 2026 was originally projected at about 4,718 MW. Dr. Suleman warned that recording real-time peaks of 4,294 MW before mid-year indicates that the grid is being “pushed to the edge of its reliable operating envelope far sooner than we anticipated.”
The PURC Executive Secretary noted that energy planners have used an 8% annual demand growth figure as the baseline assumption for infrastructure planning and investment over the years but warned that this figure “outmatched.”
“We are looking at an annual projection of 8% per annum. But I can assure you that we are moving faster than that and it’s because of the stability, it’s because of the availability of the power, and then the suppressed demand is now being catered for, and more consumers are coming on,” he noted.
Dr. Suleman added that the 24-Hour Economy policy, which targets around-the-clock economic activities, will “test the grid’s capacity because it was certainly not built for this.”
Meanwhile, the Centre for Environmental Management and Sustainable Energy (CEMSE), has projected that fully implementing the 24-Hour Economy policy could push Ghana’s peak demand to as high as 9,150 MW by 2030, twice more than the current levels, and will require an additional 1,200 MW of generation capacity to be online by 2027 alone, at a cost of at least $2 billion.
“Without that investment, Ghana could face a crisis caused by excess demand,” it warned.
Ghana’s current installed generation capacity stands at about 5,749 MW, technically above the current peak of 4,294 MW.
However, CEMSE explained that “installed capacity and deliverable, reliable capacity are not the same thing,” warning that fuel supply vulnerabilities, aging transmission infrastructure, distribution bottlenecks, “and the concentration of demand in urban corridors mean that the buffer between ‘enough power exists’ and ‘enough power reaches you’ is thinner than the figures suggest.”
“Looking at the numbers, it is no longer about whether the grid will be tested, I think it is more about whether we can mobilize quickly enough to stay ahead of a demand curve that is moving faster than our projections,” Dr. Suleman stated.
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