Africa focused oil and gas firm, Tullow Oil Plc has announced the start of a multi-year, multi-well drilling campaign offshore in the Republic of Ghana.
In a press statement posted on its website, Tullow said the drilling of the first well at the Jubilee Field commenced on Monday, April 5, 2021.
“The Maersk Venturer, which has been contracted for four years, is expected to drill four wells in total in 2021, consisting of two Jubilee production wells, one Jubilee water injector well and one TEN gas injector well,” the statement said.
The 2021 drilling campaign is the first part of Tullow’s 10-year Business Plan which was presented at Tullow’s Capital Markets Day in November 2020.
Tullow is the lead operator of Ghana’s Jubilee Oil Field.
The Ghana portfolio has a large resource base with extensive infrastructure already in place.
Through a rigorous focus on costs and capital discipline, Tullow believes that these assets have the potential to generate material cash flow over the next decade and deliver significant value for Ghana and investors.
Throughout this campaign, Tullow will continue to implement its shared prosperity strategy through a strong local content programme with suppliers in Ghana, the professional and technical development of Ghanaian nationals and continued investment in STEM education, enterprise development and shared infrastructure.
Commenting on the drilling campaign, Rahul Dhir, Chief Executive Officer, Tullow Oil plc, said: “Today is an important milestone in the implementation of our long-term Business Plan. Working closely with the Government of Ghana and our joint venture partners in Ghana, I am confident that we will unlock the full potential from the Jubilee and TEN fields through this multi-year, multi-well drilling programme.”
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
Gambia’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), has launched the National Energy Nexus Platform as part of efforts to promote and adopt sustainable energy solutions in the West African nation.
Speaking on behalf of the Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Momodou B. Sarr, who is the adviser to the minister, said the platform was a multi sectoral group tasked with the responsibility of conducting policy dialogues linking energy with other relevant sectors of Gambia’s economy.
He added that for any country to achieve meaningful development; it must be able to provide adequate, reliable and affordable energy service to its people.
According to him, the government of The Gambia has accorded high priority to the energy sector.
He further added that the government of The Gambia strives to provide Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) by 2030, cognizant of the importance of energy projects for other key sectors of the economy.
“The Gambia National Platform for Energy Nexus is now being established to focus on those interlinkages in order to strengthen the collaboration relating to energy issues among key sectors,” he noted.
For her part, the UNIDO representative,Haddijatou Jallow, said the launching represents a milestone for the government of The Gambia, adding that in the past decades, efforts were made in terms of policies such as on energy, trade and consumer protection in The Gambia.
According to her, in order to support the Energy Nexus issues, the National Platform will facilitate the implementation of incentives to promote the uptake and dissemination of the targeted EE solutions on large scale in different sectors, geographical areas and target groups.
She further emphasised that after the establishment of the platform, it is expected that at least 20 projects will use the Nexus approach to encompass RE/EE in other sectors.
Also, efforts will be made to use gender mainstreaming during the implementation as 40% of the platform representatives will be women.
“In line with our mandate to promote Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development, we support together with our partners the inevitable energy transition and the associated industrial transformation through promoting policy coherence, technology innovation and integrated energy system,” she concluded.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
Ghana’s Minister for Energy, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh is urging players in the power sector to desist from peddling untruths about the current intermittent power supply being experienced in the country.
The West African nation has been experiencing intermittent power supply since the beginning of 2021.
The country’s power transmitter, Ghana Grid Company, has blamed the situation on technical challenges and ongoing upgrading of their transmission lines.
Despite series of explanations offered by the power transmitter and the power distribution company, ECG, sections of the public and some industry players have rather blamed the situation on lack of funds for the power players to ensure efficiency in the their operations.
Speaking at the CSOs’ and media engagement with GRIDCo and ECG on the current electricity situation in the country, organised by the Institute for Energy Policies and Research, in collaboration with African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), the Energy Minister expressed worry about how some power generators are feeding the public with wrong information about the current situation.
He reiterated that the current intermittent power supply being experienced is not an indication of the return to the era of load shedding, but rather challenges in the transmission system.
“What we’re currently going through is not a generation deficit neither is it ‘dumsor’ as we experienced in the past,” he stated.
“It is rather unfortunate that our generators, who obviously have no problem with what has happened, are feeding the public with statements that are probably untruths….It’s not just right for a sector player to go on air and say that we’re in the current state because the government is not giving funds.”
Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh expressed the view that this important stakeholder meeting would provide the opportunity and platform for the power subsector players to explain in details the reasons for the interruptions in the power supply system within the last few weeks.
“It is our expectation that such clarification will be extended to the larger populace,” he said.
Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh charged ECG and GRIDCo to communicate their planned outages timeously to enable consumers to plan ahead.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
Ghana would soon join the hosts of countries across the globe with its first Nuclear Power Plant.
The West African nation’s quest to use nuclear technology for power generation dates back in the 1960’s when the country’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah established the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission to spearhead the Nuclear agenda.
Unfortunately, the idea was stillbirth and abandoned until 2008 when a Cabinet decision to include nuclear in the country’s electricity generation mix was taken to help curb the national perennial power crisis.
Government’s bid to provide a solution to the country’s 10-year cycle of power crisis coupled with the need for an alternative baseload plant established a nuclear energy programme implementing and coordination body, known as the Ghana Nuclear Power Programme Organisation (GNPPO).
In accordance with the framework advocated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for Nuclear Power Infrastructure Development, GNPPO developed a 3 Phase roadmap for Ghana’s initiative.
The country has since 2018 established an Owner/Operator entity, the Nuclear Power Ghana (NPG) for its 1st Nuclear Power Plant and has successfully completed the first Phase of the Nuclear Programme.
NPG will undertake requisite feasibility studies and activities required in the project development and construction phases of the Nuclear Power Programme. Currently, Ghana is at the second Phase of the Nuclear agenda.
In an exclusive interview with energynewsafrica.com, the current Executive Director of NPG, Dr. Yamoah lauded the Board of Directors and his 2 predecessors for activities undertaken in Phase 1.
He mentioned that, under the Phase 2, NPG is tasked to develop institutions, build expertise/capabilities, liaise with, and manage stakeholders, comply with regulatory requirements, identify and select preferred site, negotiate with potential vendors, implement and further develop all necessary infrastructures studied and planned for in Phase 1.
Dr. Yamoah revealed that, four candidate sites have been identified, explaining further that processes are currently ongoing to select a preferred one among them, for the country’s first Nuclear Power Plant.
Critics of Ghana’s nuclear agenda have raised issues of time involved in establishing a Nuclear Plant, cost, safety and management of nuclear waste in view of the four major nuclear power incidents; namely: the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster (2011), the Chernobyl disaster (1986), the Three Mile Island accident (1979) and the SL-1 accident (1961).
Responding to these concerns, Dr. Yamoah emphasised that even though each accident had a remote cause, there have been tremendous design improvements in nuclear reactors since those incidents, plus new and strict regulatory requirements.
“One beautiful thing about scientists and engineers is that when an incident happens, they take opportunity, even though it is not expected, to understand how and why it happened and ensure that it never happen again. So in the wake of the Fukushima incident, what most nuclear power plant operators in Japan and other parts of the world did was to shut down most plants. And then once the understanding came, they put in place measures to ensure that such a thing does not happen again,’’ he explained.
In a bid to school those who have no inkling as what really caused the Fukushima nuclear power accident, Dr. Yamoah said: “What happened at Fukushima was a combination of earthquake and Tsunami. So first the earthquake happened and all the national grid went off. The Nuclear Power Plant operators all over world have what we call emergency power systems. So with the national grid going off in Fukushima within seconds the emergency diesel generators came online and everything was restored to normal. And then after some few minutes the tsunami came and knocks off all the emergency diesel generators and so there was no power supply to the active systems to provide cooling to the system.”
Dr. Yamoah said, following the incidents, regulations have been established that puts responsibility on the nuclear power operators to ensure that emergency diesel generators are placed at elevations higher than the environment of the nuclear power plan.
“New reactor designs (Gen III and III+) use both active and passive systems and that makes it safer than before,” he added.
Although he admitted that Nuclear Power Plant takes a number of years to construct, he explained that the long period is due to the intensive planning, implementation of carefully selected processes and the exhaustive checks and balance required before the plant becomes operational.
Dr. Yamoah stated that some countries have decided to be or become nuclear energy-free by decommissioning their Nuclear Power Plants after it has served their needs successfully. Majority of the plants have almost reached their life span. In all these countries as we speak, they’re still generating electricity from Nuclear Power Plant and have developed their industries. Other Nuclear Power operating countries are building new plants and there are new comer countries on board operating their first commercial Nuclear Plants.
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Nigeria’s total crude oil and condensate production from January to October 2020 fell by 10.25 percent when compared to similar period in 2019, latest data from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has shown.
According to data from Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, total oil and condensate production for January to October 2020 was 553.59 million barrels.
The figure for January to October, 2019 was 616.87 million barrels.
The report also revealed that production in September 2020 was 47.82 million barrels, a 23 percent decline from the 62.10 million barrels produced in September, 2019.
The data also showed that oil and condensate production for August 2020 was 51.15 million barrels, a drop of 20.87 percent when compared to 64.64 million barrels produced in August 2019.
For July 2020, production fell by 21.57 percent to 51.26 million barrels, compared to 65.36 million barrels recorded in July 2019. Also, oil and condensate production fell by 19.29 percent in June 2020 to 50.26 million barrels compared to 62.72 million produced in June 2019.
Data for May 2020 showed that oil and condensate production was 54.24 million barrels, a fall of 9.63 percent compared to 60.02 million barrels produced in May 2019.
The report also showed that a total of 61.09 million barrels of crude and condensate was produced in April 2020, a rise 3.37 percent compared to 59.10 million for April 2019.
The figure for March 2020 crude oil and condensate production was 63.19 million, a marginal rise of 0.7 percent compared to 62.75 million barrels in March 2019.
The report also indicated that production in February 2020 rose by 7.87 percent to 60.02 million barrels compared to 55.64 million barrels.
Also, the data for January 2020, showed that oil and condensate production rose by 5.05 percent to 64.26 million barrels compared to 61.17 million barrels produced in January 2019.
NNPC in the November MFOR explained that of the 49.94 million barrels of crude oil and condensate produced Joint Ventures, JVs, and Production Sharing Contracts, PSC, contributed about 30.73 percent and 38.77 percent respectively.
While Alternative Funding, AF, Nigeria Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, and Independents accounted for 11.42 percent, 9.93 per cent, and 9.15 per cent respectively. It stated that NPDC October 2019 to October 2020 cumulative production from all fields was 74,394,523 barrels of crude oil translating to an average daily production of 187,392 barrels per day.
The Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has launched the national retail outlet fuel monitoring system initiated by the country’s downstream regulator, National Petroleum Authority (NPA).
The initiative is in response to calls for the downstream petroleum regulator to introduce digitisation to deal with illegal activities regarding fuel trading.
The new initiative will help NPA to monitor the quantity of petroleum products in the storage tanks of Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) at their retail outlets.
Speaking at the launching of the ultramodern facility in Accra, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia said the initiative would not only improve the petroleum product distribution system but will also go a long way towards the country’s ‘Beyond Aid’ agenda.
According to him, the initiative would help the government in its effort to maximise revenue mobilisation from petroleum products.
“Taxes and levies on petroleum products are major sources of revenue for the government in pursuing its development agenda,’’ he said.
The Vice President decried the actions of some unscrupulous players in the downstream petroleum industry, which, he said continues to deny the needed revenue in that sector.
“Between 2015 and 2019, it is estimated that the government lost a total of GHS4.7 billion in tax revenue as a result of illegal activities in the petroleum downstream sector,’’ Dr. Bawumia revealed.
The Vice President noted that the illegal activities take place in the sector because of lack of transparency.
He was hopeful that the retail outlet fuel monitoring system would help block revenue leakages and improve revenue mobilisation for the government to be able to provide social services to Ghanaians.
“We are looking forward to blocking revenue leakage and mobilising revenue to ensure development,” he said.
Energy Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, who lauded the initiative, urged the OMCs, Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and dealers to enroll onto the platform.
According to him, the initiative would promote economic development and ensure the profitability of the industry for all the players.
Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Minister for Energy
A Chief Inspector at NPA, Esther Anku stated that the retail outlet monitoring system is aimed at complementing measures already taken in the fight against illicit activities, saying it is expected to monitor the receipt into the retail outlets of smuggled products, products meant for export and diverted subsidised products such as premix and MGO local.
Mrs Esther Anku, Chief Inspector at the NPA
He said among other functions of the system would be augmenting the capacity of the OMCs to manage their retail outlets.
“The system records the volume of product receipts into the underground tanks both under ambient conditions and volume corrected to 20 degrees Celsius. This feature in combination with the high level accuracy tank calibration will help resolve misunderstandings that often erupt between tanker drivers and station dealers on quantity of product delivered,” she said.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
Ghana’s Minister for Energy, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, on Tuesday, paid a working visit to the operational head office of the West African nation’s power transmission company, GRIDCo, in Tema to inspect ongoing project being executed by the company to boost power transmission.
The Minister held a meeting with the Chief Executive Officer of GRIDCo, Ing. Jonathan Amoako-Baah and his team and later visited the systems control room to acquaint himself with what goes on in that office.
Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, who was accompanied by some officials of the Ministry of Energy including the Chief Director Lawrence Apaalse and Director in-charge of Upstream, Benjamin Asante, later visited the site where GRIDCo is constructing 161kV transmission line to inspect the progress of work.
Briefing the Energy Minister, Director for Engineering Projects at GRIDCo, Ing. Owusu Afriyie said the Volta-Achimota-Transmission line was constructed in 1965 and had since not seen any upgrade.
He said the company is currently upgrading it to ensure that it is able to transfer more load to Accra.
Mr Afriyie explained that when completed, the lines would increase its load capacity by about three fold from the current 420MVA to about 1200MVA.
He noted that the project had commenced from the Volta sub-station which was one of GRIDCo’s Bulk Supply Point in Tema to Achimota, a distance of about 27 kilometres.
GRIDCo engineers working on the 161kV transmission lines
“By the completion of this project, we will have more power to the Achimota sub-station transferred from the Volta substation to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to distribute,” he said.
Speaking to the press, Dr Prempeh dismissed assertions in the media that the country has returned to the era of power crisis popularly called ‘dumsor’ in the local parlance.
According to him, the ongoing system upgrade is responsible for the intermittent power outage being experienced in the country.
“We should all be sincere and truthful in our communication. In 2016, the whole country was given periods when we were to receive power and when to be off. In 2016, the government of the day told us it was a generation problem. Even the opposition then said the government did not have money to buy fuel to power the generators. This is not a generation problem; this is not about fuel so how can we call it dumsor?” he queried.
He said the government had included in this year’s budget the provision to improve on the electricity supply systems and it is going to continue until the system improves.
“We are working feverishly to resolve the challenges which have arisen as a result of technical difficulties with our transmission lines, and it is our hope that, that issue will be resolved by the end of the year,” he said.
He said Ghanaians would have to “bear with the contractors so they finish in time so we can enjoy the improvement we so desire. We have systems where lights are flickering, voltages are low and the line is down and that is exactly why we have what we have,” the Minister explained.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
The technology group Wärtsilä has highlighted a striking need to scale up flexibility in South Africa, in the form of energy storage and flexible gas technology, to enable a 100% renewable energy future.
28 GW of flexible assets are needed for South Africa’s energy systems to run on 100% renewable energy at the lowest cost. The capacity needed to balance South Africa’s switch to grids powered by intermittent renewables must come from two key technologies: over 21 GW of energy storage and over 6.8 GW of flexible gas power capacity, capable of running on future fuels. Future fuels can be produced during periods when renewables produce more electricity than is needed.
Wayne Glossop, South Africa Business Development Manager, Wärtsilä Energy, said: “Last month’s UN climate report gives a clear message for South Africa: to decarbonise at the lowest cost, high levels of renewable energy must be scaled up by 2030. What we have learned from modelling over 145 countries and regions in our Atlas of 100% Renewable Energy is that power systems with high levels of renewables need a significant amount of flexibility, through energy storage and gas balancing technology, to achieve the transition to 100% renewable energy future.
“By building high shares of renewables, we can create the conditions to produce carbon-neutral Future Fuels that can decarbonise all energy intensive sectors, from power to mobility. To solve this final piece of the net-zero puzzle, the answer once again is to urgently build more renewables, supported by future-proof flexibility solutions.”
South Africa’s need for 28GW of agile flexible solutions reflects the country’s exceptionally high potential to meet its demand almost exclusively with wind and solar energy, and the requirement for significant power storage capacity when wind and solar is no longer generating.
To meet South Africa’s clear need for grid flexibility, Wärtsilä has today launched grid balancing technology – capable of ramping up to 10+ MW in two minutes – to bridge utilities to a 100% renewable energy future at the lowest cost.
Wärtsilä’s grid balancing technology is part of a portfolio of products designed to cost effectively accelerate the energy transition. The portfolio consists of power plants, energy storage and energy management systems. The first power plant solution in the portfolio is powered by the upgraded Wärtsilä 34SG Balancer engine, optimised for renewable baseload markets; an agile, fast-starting gas engine capable of ramping up to 10.8 MW in two minutes to seamlessly integrate with renewables. The power plant solution is based on lean design, and it can be equipped with features such as unmanned standby, remote control capabilities, 24/7 data streaming and dynamic power management. Optimised performance and reliability are supported by Wärtsilä Lifecycle solutions.
Wärtsilä’s power plant gas engines can currently run on natural gas, biogas, synthetic methane or hydrogen blends.
The company is actively developing the combustion process to allow the burning of 100% hydrogen and other future fuels. Wärtsilä has a long track record of successful fuel conversions for the global installed engine base.
A significant degree of overcapacity is needed to account for the variability of wind and solar generation. Excess electricity is then utilised to produce future fuels with Power-to-X technology. The modelling finds that balancing the intermittency of the renewable production with a combination of flexible gas and energy storage would be 38% cheaper for the G20, in comparison to relying on energy storage alone.
Alongside the power plant solution, Wärtsilä offers its fully integrated GridSolv energy storage technology, designed for ease of deployment and sustainable energy optimisation, and its GEMS Digital Energy Platform. GEMS dynamically optimises energy systems through a broad range of applications, like frequency regulation, to create revenue streams and enhance grid/system resilience.
Jukka Lehtonen, Vice President for Technology & Product Management at Wärtsilä Energy, said: “Currently, the industry is in a challenging situation. Investments need to be made today even if visibility of the future is not fully clear. We have developed, in an agile manner, a solution based on existing, proven technology which is future-proof and flexible. The solution can be adapted to different operational profiles and running hours, along with evolving needs of the system. Using our solution, renewables can be integrated seamlessly into different energy mixes as they become available.”
The modelling on the G20’s comprehensive need for flexibility is based on Wärtsilä’s Atlas of 100% Renewable Energy, which shows the cost-optimal capacity mix for 100% renewable electricity systems in 145 countries and regions around the world.
Ghana’s Minister for Energy, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh has appealed to Ghanaians to remain assured that GRIDCo is working to resolve all the challenges in areas experiencing power outages.
“I entreat all Ghanaians in the affected areas to be patient as the issues relating to our current power situation are being addressed and ultimately resolved,” the Energy Minister said in a post on his Facebook wall on Tuesday.
The Minister announced that he is visiting the operational head office of GRIDCo in Tema as part of his familiarisation tour of the fifteen agencies under the Ministry of Energy.
“This morning, I will be paying a visit to the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) head office in Tema as part of my familiarisation tour of agencies under the Ministry of Energy.
“I will first interact with leadership of the company on issues relating to the power transmission systems affecting the constant supply of electricity in the country. My visit will also include GRIDCo’s System Control Centre as well as a field trip to observe and be briefed on projects being undertaken to upgrade our transmission lines,” his post concluded.
Ghana has been experiencing intermittent power outages in recent times.
The power transmission company has blamed the situation on technical issues and has promised to resolve them.
Thirteen labourers were reportedly injured after a scaffolding on which they stood to work at a power plant in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadra District in India collapsed.
The company, in a letter addressed to the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police, confirmed the incident.
According to the factory manager of Lanco Anpara Power Ltd, S K Dwived, the iron structure collapsed at about 2.45am on Sunday during maintenance work.
While eight labourers were discharged after treatment, another five were in a serious condition and had been admitted to a government hospital, he explained.
Out of the five labourers in hospital, three sustained head injuries, one suffered a broken hand and another fractured his leg, Dwivedi said.
“All are out of danger,” he added.
Dismissing reports in a section of media about a boiler blast at the power plant, Dwivedi narrated: “The unit was closed for maintenance since March 22 and the maintenance work will go on for around one month. The scaffolding on which the labourers were standing suddenly came down. Luckily, they were wearing helmets and no labourer was standing beneath them.
“The company will conduct an internal inquiry to ascertain the cause of the accident,” he said.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has taken cognisance of the incident and directed the additional chief secretary (Energy) to probe the matter.
Adityanath said the probe should fix responsibility for the incident and effective action should be taken at the earliest time.
He also directed the local administration to ensure that the injured received proper treatment.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
Oil and Gas services provider, MODEC, has been suspended from participating in new competitive bidding by Brazilian national oil company Petrobras.
MODEC, in a statement posted on its website, said it received a notification from Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. that its eligibility to participate in new competitive bidding by Petrobras has been suspended for 13 months effective March 31, 2021.
The main basis for this administrative sanction, the company said, is because of losses to Petrobras presumably caused by the performance of three Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels under charter services that MODEC has provided in the past and/or is presently providing to Petrobras.
These FPSOs are the FPSO Cidade do Rio de Janeiro MV14, whose charter contract expired in 2019, and two FPSOs which are currently chartered to Petrobras namely, the FPSO Cidade de Niterói MV18 and the FPSO Cidade de Santos MV20, according to the notification.
“There is no expectation of further developments or implications, including on MODEC’s financials, as this administrative sanction does not impact the execution of the current contracts in place between MODEC and Petrobras,” the company said.
According to MODEC, it remains committed to improving its practices in order to eliminate any issues in its activities under the current contracts.
“MODEC continues to see Brazil as its main and most promising market, and reaffirms its commitment to the oil and gas sector, with the excellence that has always been linked to its name during the more than 15 years in Brazil, with its employees, customers and suppliers,” the company concluded.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
The President and Chief Executive Officer of Japan’s floating solutions provider, MODEC, Yuji Kozai has resigned.
According to MODEC, Yuji Kozai’s reason for his resignation was based on ill-health.
Following the resignation, Yuji Kozai has taken on the role of Executive Advisor to the company.
The company has appointed Takeshi Kanamori as the new Representative Director, President & CEO, effective April 5, 2021.
Kanamori joined MODEC in 2013 as External Director.
Before this appointment, Kanamori was the Executive Vice President.
In a message on MODEC’s website, the company’s new CEO, Kanamori said: “The global energy demand will continue to grow. Oil demand will increase steadily and the use of natural gas, a major clean energy source, will continue to gain strong momentum.
“We will optimise our business portfolio while pioneering new business areas, especially in offshore wind power utilisation and seabed mineral resources harvesting, with the objective of contributing to the creation of a brighter future for our world,” he said.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
Ghana’s power transmission company, GRIDCo, has attributed Saturday’s night power outages in parts of the Greater Accra Region to a falling of one of the conductors on the East Accra transmission line.
According to GRIDCo, the conductor fell at Trassaco, a suburb of Accra, capital of Ghana.
In a statement issued by the Corporate Affairs Unit of GRIDCo, it explained that the maintenance team was able to work round the clock to restore power to the Mallam Achimota and Central Accra Bulk Supply Points (BSPs) at about 4:00am on Sunday, April 4, 2021.
“Power supply has, however, been reduced to 50 percent in areas around Trassaco as the team works to permanently fix the fault,” the company said.
Sierra Leone is seeking sustainable partnership from external donors to be able to deal with the fiscal pressure on the country’s electricity sector as the government subsidy policy begins to bite hard.
Addressing stakeholders in the energy sector at a roundtable in Freetown recently, President of the West African nation, His Excellency Dr Julius Maada Bio revealed that the government spent in excess of Le140 Billion ($13,709,472.00) to subsidise electricity supply in 2020 alone.
“I am concerned about the pressure on Government finances, but I believe that we can collaborate as partners to find a sustainable financial model that will serve us in the long-term. Since the COVID-19 pandemic struck, partner and foreign funding sources to support the energy sector have dwindled somewhat. But the need for available and affordable electricity has not diminished,” he said.
According to him, the meeting was “to discuss and assess the key issues and challenges of the sector, and agree on priority areas for intervention, through a collaborative effort of the government and partners,” in ways that aligned with the policy direction they had mapped out as a government.
He said they had identified priorities for the sector because they believed that reliable, affordable, accessible and clean power was critical for the development of the country’s economy.
He noted that in addition to supporting his government’s human capital development priorities, they also recognised that enhanced energy security would support investments, which in turn would create opportunities and jobs.
“A greater proportion of clean energy in the mix especially for rural-off-grid areas also supports climate change resilience. Toward those objectives, our partners have generously supported initiatives to deliver reliable electricity. Permit me to identify a few of these initiatives: The unbundling of vertically integrated NPA to create EDSA, EGTC and EWRC; the implementation of standard operating procedures and metrics for EDSA with the support of the World Bank Management Contractor.”
Minister for Energy, Alhaji Kanja Sesay said the presence of His Excellency Julius Maada Bio at the opening of the roundtable discussions was a show of his commitment to revamping the energy sector.
He added that the discussion would focus on priority sector issues, making ways forward with initiatives that support the requirements of the MCC Compact.
“Sierra Leone is a recipient of funds from international donors for the electrification of towns project. The government is committed to building partnerships with private sector players to ease the burden on the government,” he said.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
The Vice President noted that the illegal activities take place in the sector because of lack of transparency.
He was hopeful that the retail outlet fuel monitoring system would help block revenue leakages and improve revenue mobilisation for the government to be able to provide social services to Ghanaians.
“We are looking forward to blocking revenue leakage and mobilising revenue to ensure development,” he said.
Energy Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, who lauded the initiative, urged the OMCs, Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and dealers to enroll onto the platform.
According to him, the initiative would promote economic development and ensure the profitability of the industry for all the players.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
“We are working feverishly to resolve the challenges which have arisen as a result of technical difficulties with our transmission lines, and it is our hope that, that issue will be resolved by the end of the year,” he said.
He said Ghanaians would have to “bear with the contractors so they finish in time so we can enjoy the improvement we so desire. We have systems where lights are flickering, voltages are low and the line is down and that is exactly why we have what we have,” the Minister explained.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
