Ghana: Power Outages: Gov’t Given 24-Hr Ultimatum To Publish Load Shedding Time Table

A former Deputy Minister for Power under the erstwhile John Mahama administration and a current Member  of Parliament for Yapei-Kusawgu, in the Republic of Ghana, John Abdulai Jinapor  has given the Akufo-Addo-administration a 24-hour ultimatum to publish a Load Shedding Time Table or face the wrath of the Minority.

“The Minister for Energy is, hereby, putting on notice that failure to comply within 24 hours will compel us to explore all available options under the 1992 Constitution and the Standing Orders of Parliament not excluding a vote of censure on him,” John Jinapor said in a statement.

There has been pockets of power outages across the West African nation since the beginning of February 2020.

The situation has made many electricity users lamenting on social media, with some concluding that the country has returned to the era of load shedding which was christened as ‘dumsor’ in the Ghanaian parlance.

In an interview with Accra-based Joy FM, Deputy Minister for Energy in charge of Power, William Owuraku Aidoo blamed the current power cuts on the ongoing cleaning and inspection exercise being undertaken by the West Africa Gas Pipeline Company which has stopped the flow of gas supply from the east to various power plants powered by natural gas.

“This is going to be for just a few more days, and we will come to normal… It is not as people have been saying that ‘dumsor’ is back and we’ve gone back to the bad old days again. No. This is work that needed to be done to ensure the integrity of the pipeline and gas supply to our generators,” Owuraku Aidoo explained.

“We apologise for the inconvenience… the engineers are working,” he said.

“We did take steps to try and reduce to the barest minimum the interruptions in the power supply because we shouldn’t forget that Ghana, of course, we have our own indigenous gas that we can flow from the west to the east, but unfortunately because of this work, the gas from the west to the east, that is from Takoradi to the Tema enclave could not also be supplied.

“The Kpone Thermal Plant…we’ve lost one of the generators, which is giving us something in the region of 100 megawatts. We have also lost the TICO Plant [Takoradi International Plant]. We’ve lost parts of it as well, which were not foreseen. We made all these plans and unfortunately this has happened. Cenpower also, we were taking 180, a combination of 360, one turbine is gone off losing 180 so when we combine these unforeseen generators that have gone off…right now we are losing something in the region of between 100 and 200 megawatts.

“The plants that have gone down that I have enumerated amounts to well over 300, almost 400 megawatts, so that is what has caused this problem but like I said, this is going to be for a few days and we will come back to normalcy. So I’ll apologise once again on behalf of the Ministry of Energy that we will come back to normal. It is not as people have been saying that ‘dumsor’ is back and we’ve gone back to the bad old days again, no. This is work that needed to be done to ensure the integrity of the pipeline and gas supply to our generators.”

However, John Jinapor, who accused the Akufo-Addo of poorly managing the energy sector, maintained that the dreadful ‘dumsor’ is back.

“It is instructive to note that GRIDCo has been clandestinely shedding about 200MW since the first week of February this year with no end in sight.

“Let me be clear, the dreaded DUMSOR which the Mahama administration resolved is sadly back due to the ineptitude and mismanagement of the energy sector,” he stated.

“Today, the Ministry of Energy, having been exposed badly with the current DUMSOR the nation is witnessing is moving away from its earlier position that power outages was solely a result of financial challenges.

“For the records, this government has not procured a single drum of LCO since 2019.

“I, therefore, call on the Akuffo-Addo-led government to immediately desist from this blatant deception and publish the Load Shedding Time Table to enable Ghanaians plan their daily schedules,” Mr Jinapor demanded.

Source:www.energynewsafrica.com