The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has completed its institution of 500kv transformer that will connect the newly commissioned, Ghana Infectious Disease Centre (GIDC) to the national electricity grid.

According to the Managing Director the ECG, Mr Kwame Agyeman-Budu, the provision and connection of the 500kv transformer to the facility, forms part of his outfit’s support to the treatment centre in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

The MD of ECG speaking to the media said; “We contacted our engineers and in two and half days, we were done. As a matter of fact, it started on Monday, and we finished everything last night, Tuesday, 28th July, 2020. We just made a few finishing touches and energised it this morning. This is just to show our support to the trustees, to the centre and also to the government that indeed ECG is here to support any initiative that will support the entire nation.”

“This cost us GH¢320,00 and initially, the centre requested 800kv transformer, but when our engineers sat down to analyse the load, we realised that, the load frontal was around 300kv to 400kv so we decided to give them 500kv load so everything is taken into consideration,” Mr Agyeman-Budu explained.

Explaining whether the connection will, in any way impact on the finances and operations of the ECG, Mr Budu said; “We will not be affected at all because we already had these materials in stock, and even though it was not budgeted for, we have some miscellaneous fund that we’ve put aside in case of emergencies. However, some of the challenges we faced with the temporary free electricity supply was data issues. And at times the network also fails us because if the customer goes to the vending station and the data is not already there, it makes it difficult to determine. But we’ve been dealing with them on case to case basis and so far, our customers are satisfied with what we’ve done”

The launch of the Ghana Infectious Disease Centre by Vice-President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia last Friday, July 24 cost an amount of US$7.5 million and was facilitated by the Ghana COVID-19 Private Sector Fund in collaboration with the Ghana Armed Forces at the Ga East Municipal Hospital in Accra.

The world-class 100-bed facility was constructed by a team of 536 men and women working 24 hours a day. Persons who worked tirelessly to build the centre in a bid to support government’s fight and management of COVID-19 in Ghana.