Ghana has started an unannounced power rationing popularly known as load shedding as a result of shortfall in generation occasioned by several factors.
This portal understands that at about 5pm on Tuesday, West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited, WAPCo, suspended gas transported to Tema and Western power enclaves as a result of $20million debt owed them by the Electricity Company of Ghana.
Several parts of the West African nation suffered power cuts around 6:40 pm and many were anticipating that power supply will be restored later in the night, but that did not happen.
Sources within the power sector revealed to energynewsafrica.com that the power supply cuts or load shedding is going to persist for some days in January 2024 due to generation shortfall occasioned by limited fuel supply.
Issues
Impeccable sources within the power sector indicate that the Takoradi thermal power plant, which is a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) power plant operated by the Volta River Authority (VRA) is currently not generating power onto the national grid due to some ongoing maintenance works which started last year.
According to our sources, one of the 6 units of the Akosombo Hydroelectric Power Dam is currently also not running.
Beside these, Cenit, Bridgepower, Cenpower, Ameri power plant, and T3 did not generate power as of last night.
Most of the above power plants including 400 MW Ameri power plant have been idle for some time now over fuel supply issues.
It is interesting to note that most of the power plants in the country are combined cycle plants and can run on natural gas, HFO or LCO.
So if there is any challenge with domestic gas production all that government could do is making alternative fuel available to operators of the power plants to enable them switch and generate power onto the national grid.
Ghana produces natural gas for power generation from three producing fields namely Jubilee, Sankofa Nyame and TEN.
The country requires more than 450 MMscf of gas for power generation.
However, domestic gas production is inadequate to meet the requirements.
As a result of this, Ghana still relies on Nigeria for gas taking about 40MMscf to complement domestic gas production for power generation.
According to energnewsafrica.com sources, gas supply from Nigeria has been curtailed for some days now due to ongoing Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) work.
Unfortunately, government has not been able to procure fuel for the power generators thereby compelling them to either shutdown or reduce generation.
This has left the power distribution company, Electricity Company of Ghana with no other option than shed load.
According to sources, some of the players in the power sector have advised the Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Information to inform Ghanaians about the current situation to enable them to plan but the advice has not been taken because of how the governing party lambasted the previous government for plunging the country into prolonged power outages while in opposition.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
