The January 2016 Dumsor Report shows remarkable improvement in load-shedding but dumsor may not have ended as declared by the Ministry of Power.
Continued monitoring shows that outages have, in fact, ticked up slightly since the beginning of the year. The question is whether these current outages are due to load-shedding or “localized outages,” as the former sector Minister referred to intermittent cuts. The Bremang area of Kumasi warrants special mention for worst scores on most counts.
From December 25, 2015 to January 7, 2016 researchers gathered power outage data overlapping the holidays and the anticipated “end of dumsor.” Consumers reported from 40 areas: 35 in the Greater Accra Region, 3 in Ashanti, 1 in Eastern, and 1 in Volta.
Analysis of the data shows the following results:
- Half of the areas covered had power 100 percent of the time
- Kumasi Bremang was at the bottom of the table with power 82 percent of the time, or an average of 19 hours and 41 minutes each day
- Kumasi Bremang also took the title for longest DUM: 27 hours and 15 minutes from 7 p.m. on January 3 to 10:15 p.m. on January 4
- On average, each area had power 98 percent of the time, or 23 hours and 33 minutes each day. This compares with 57 percent in May and 82 percent in September
- About 39 percent of the time, all areas had light, compared with May when there was never a moment when all areas had light
- Less load-shedding also meant fewer disco lights. On that measure, Kumasi Bremang shares the title with Ashongman Estates in Accra, both with 12 disco lights in the period, but still nothing compared with Weija Old Barrier’s 38 in May
- Nsawam got the worst body sha (also known as ma tricki wo) on January 3, with a burst of sor for 14 minutes, starting at 2:59 p.m.before going back to dum
- The brightest day was December 28 when power was supplied more than 99% of the time
- Amanfrom Adenta Dodowa had a black Christmas with dum for almost four hours on that “holy” night
- Amanfrom again had dum on New Year’s Day. But this time, they shared the title with Amarahia (Valley View), Ashongman Estates, Batsonaa Spintex, Pantang Abokobi, Race Course, and West Legon.
- The week after the announcement of the “End of Dumsor” was slightly worse than the week before
The Dumsor Report is a quantitative analysis of load-shedding patterns as experienced by consumers. Volunteer consumers report each time their power goes on or off .
The January report is in the form of four main charts:
- Summary infographic
- Timeline of on/off for each area
- Chart of the total amount of power received by consumers for the period
- Ranking of amount of power received by area
The report is funded and produced by Kobina Aidoo, a citizen, with Felicia Efua Arthur as research assistant. The report is primarily for the sake of public information to improve management and regulation.
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Credit: Kobina Aidoo
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