Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo)
GRIDCo was established in accordance with the Energy Commission Act, 1997 (Act 541) and the Volta River Development (Amendment) Act, 2005 Act 692, to:
- Undertake economic dispatch and transmission of electricity from wholesale suppliers (generating companies) to bulk customers, which include the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) and the Mines.
- Provide fair and non-discriminatory transmission services to all power market participants.
- Acquire and manage assets, facilities and systems required to transmit electrical energy.
- Provide metering and billing services to bulk customers.
- Carry out transmission system planning and implement necessary investments to provide the capacity to reliably transmit electric energy; and manage the Wholesale Power Market.
Electricity Transmitted and Transmission Losses (GWh)
Transmission denominates the movement of electrical energy from the generating source like the power plant to the substation, before it is distributed to the end-consumers. The transmission of electricity in Ghana is undertaken by GRIDCo. In accordance with the developments on the electricity generation side, the transmitted amount of electrical energy too has been on a growth course, except for the energy crisis in 2015. The transmission losses accrued during transmission from the plant to the substation in comparison have stayed fairly constant around a level of 500 GWh.
Transmission Losses % of Total Electricity Transmitted
This bar chart illustrates the transmission losses of GRIDCo as percentage of the total electricity transmitted. The share of transmission losses has been quite stable over the period of 2010 to 2020 fluctuating around 4%. This share is not much higher than the range of 0.4% to 3% losses at transmission levels observed in a survey of 27 European countries.