Ghana: Gov’t Releases GHS 200m To ECG To Settle Independent Power Producers

Information available to energynewsafrica.com indicates that Ghana’s Ministry of Finance has released an amount of GHc200 million to the Electricity Company of Ghana to settle part of its indebtedness to the Independent Power Producers (IPPs).

According to our sources, the GHc200 million was released on Wednesday and allocation was started immediately.

Our sources say Cenpower Generation Company has already received its part of the money with the rest yet to receive theirs.

It would be recalled that the Chamber of Independent Power Producers,Distributors and Bulk Customers(CIPDIB) issued a threat that its members would be compelled to shut down their plants if government failed to pay monies owed its members within seven days.

The companies – Sunon-Asogli Power (Ghana) Limited, BXC Solar Ghana, Cenit Energy Limited, Cenpower Generation Company Limited and Karpowership Ghana Company Limited – are members of the Chamber of Independent Power Producers and Bulk Consumers (CIPDIB).

In a statement issued and signed by the Chief Executive Officer of CIPDIB, Elikplim Kwabla Apetorgbor, it urged the government, through the Ministry of Energy, to compel PDS to expressly pay all accumulated invoices to the IPPs within the next seven days.

The statement further urged the government not to only make PDS pay its debts to the IPPs, but also be made to pay interest on all overdue invoices, which the IPPs could have profitably utilized.

It also called on the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) to compel PDS to adhere to best business practices and respect the terms of the PPAs and ensure that the nation derives the optimum benefit from the concession arrangement.

However, Power Distribution Services (Ghana) Limited rebutted the claims by the IPPs that the service owes them.

Head of Communications at PDS William Boateng, in an interview, stated that PDS only had an agreement with ECG and not IPPs and, thus, directed the latter to go to ECG if its monies had not been paid.