NO POWER INTERRUPTION IN BA — VRA ASSURES (PAGE 31, JUNE 8, 2010)

The Brong-Ahafo Area Office of the Volta River Authority’s (VRAs) Northern Electricity Department (NED) has assured residents in the region of uninterrupted power supply during the South Africa 2010 World Cup tournament and beyond.
Mr Alaasan Abaaba, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) for the Brong-Ahafo Region VRA NED, who gave the assurance in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Sunyani at the weekend, said adequate mechanisms had been put in place to forestall any power outage that might occur during that period and beyond.
He noted that football was the passion of the nation and therefore enough preparation had been made by the VRA NED to ensure that residents in the region enjoyed constant and efficient  power supply during the period for the tournament and beyond.
He, however, noted that there was the need for the public to understand that there were two kinds of outages, the planned and unplanned, adding that with the planned outages it was within the control of the VRA and, therefore, everything was being done to avoid it adding, however, that with regard to the unplanned ones, the VRA did not have control over them.
Mr Abaaba said those unplanned outages included trees falling on the lines of the VRA during severe rainstorm, transformers being struck by thunder, as well as the interference of humans, such as the cutting of electricity cables by thieves, among others.
Apart from these unplanned outages, the VRA would do its best to ensure constant power supply, and  when there was any outage the authority would do its possible best to restore power immediately.
According to Mr Abaaba, the region also has in place a stand-by team to attend to all distress calls and emergencies so as to restore supply as soon as they occurred.
He noted that electricity distribution work was a shared responsibility and therefore the  VRA was 95 per cent prepared to ensure efficient power supply during the tournament, but the public would have to ensure that the network was free of any inteference from them.
Meanwhile, officials at the Regional Office of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) have also assured residents in the region of clear television signals and reception.
According to them once there was constant and adequate supply of power there would not be any interruption in the transmission and telecast of all matches during the tournament.