Ghana: Power Outage Imminent As Independent Power Producers Warn Of Indefinite Shutdown

The Independent Power Producers in the Republic of Ghana have served notice to shut down their plants infinitum.

A shutdown notice, which was delivered to CEO of GRIDCo, Ghana’s power transmission company, and copied to the Energy Minister John-Peter Amewu and sighted by energynewsafrica.com reads: “We would like to inform you about our firm resolve to withdraw our services in the coming days infinitum.”

According to CIPDiB, the umbrella body of the IPPs, the action follows ECG and Gov’t of Ghana’s failure to settle, at least, 80 percent of their overdue receivables worth US$1 billion.

“The respective Central Control Rooms (CCRs) of the IPPs are expected to communicate with the GRIDCo’s System Control Centre. Any inconvenience is deeply regretted,’’ he warning notice concluded.

Ghana has about 21 power plants with total installed capacity of about 5,050MW.

Out of the 21 power plants, the state owns 10 with a total capacity of 2,270MW while the IPPs own 11 with a total capacity of 2780MW.

Meanwhile, in a letter dated 4th November 2020, addressed to the Energy Minister John-Peter Amewu, and copied to President Nana Akufo-Addo on Wednesday, Chairman of CIPDiB Board, Togbe Afedi expressed worry about how their calls for government to pay them for the services they have rendered to the nation has been misconstrued.

“It seems that our cry for help in our petition to the Father of the Nation, His Excellency the President, as a last ditch effort and last resort to help address our imminent and increasing financial distress and its constraining adverse effect our ability to sustain our operations and continue our business of generating power for the nation has unfortunately been misconstrued in certain quarters within government as constituting blackmailing government. We wish through you, Honourable Minister, to unequivocally re-assure Government, that there is no iota of substance in such misconception. All IPPs are genuinely committed to working with Government to address’s the challenges of the energy sector. We have always made, and willing to continue making , all possible efforts to assist Government in addressing the sector challenges. We hope we can continue this important collective national collaborative effort devoid of any blame-game,’ part of the letter stated.

Should the IPPs go ahead with their threats, the country is likely to experience power outages if the government fails to act.

Below is the data of the various generating power plants as at today, November 12, 2020.