Ghana’s Ministry of Energy has rejected claims by the former Minister for Power under the erstwhile National Democratic Congress administration that the country risks returning to the days of prolonged power crisis over the lack of significant power generation under the current administration.
At a press conference earlier this week, Dr. Kwabena Donkor, the first Minister for Power when the John Mahama administration carved it from the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, observed that there has not been significant power generation under the Akufo-Addo administration, warning that the situation could be dire for the country.
He said on February 15, 2022, Ghana’s peak power demand was 3,343 Megawatts, saying on that day, the available power was 3,527 Megawatts.
“We had a surplus of only 180 Megawatts. So, we were dangerously close to matching peak demand with total available supply,” he explained.
The former Minister, also a legislator for East Pru, who expressed his fears about the danger ahead, said: “I happen to have been the Minister in charge of Power when this country went through a very tremendous period in terms of power supply. Today, we are gradually creeping into a situation that if I don’t draw the nation’s attention, I would not have been doing my diligent duty to the people of Ghana.”
However, reacting to his comments in a statement, the Ministry of Energy described the claim as unfounded.
“In line with our projected demand and the prudent management of the energy sector, the Ministry of Energy is confident that there is no way that the country will go back to the dark days of ‘dumsor’,” the Ministry said.
The Ministry explained that the pervasive ‘dumsor’ (load shedding) which plagued the country in the past was never about generational capacity but rather, poor hydrology due to over drafting of hydro dams, inadequate fuel supply to thermal plants and financial challenges.
Addressing the issue of poor hydrology, the Ministry said there is currently prudent management of hydro resources which includes the hybridization of Ghana’s hydro dams.
The 250MW Bui Solar project of which 50MW has been commissioned and operationalized, with the next phases ongoing, is to curb the challenge of over-drafting of the Bui Dam.
The Ministry also added in its statement that, under this government, gas flow is no longer uni-directional.
“The Takoradi-Tema Interconnection Project (TTIP) is ensuring the reverse flow of indigenous natural gas from the West to the East to power our turbines. What this means is that we no longer have the phenomenon of stranded gas in the west of the country.
“Again, the Tema LNG project, when completed soon, will allow the importation of LNG to support generation. The total generation capacity added by this government is, therefore, 421MW. This brings Ghana’s total installed capacity to 5358.50MW, against the backdrop of current peak demand of 3,469MW which was recorded on March 18, 2022,” it added.
“We wish to urge Dr. Donkor to first seek the correct information on similar issues from the ministry in future before going public with pronouncements that are not only incorrect but also tend to mislead the public and cause unnecessary concerns. This is particularly because he is a former Minister for Power and his pronouncements, therefore, carry some weight,” the statement said.
“We urge Ghanaians to rest assured that the Ministry of Energy, under the leadership of Dr. Matthew Opoku-Prempeh, remains committed to solving challenges in the generation, transmission, and distribution system of the energy sector.”
Source: energynewsafrica.com