A Member of Parliament’s Mines and Energy Committee, Edward Bawa says government is being evasive about the undercurrent issues causing the re-emergence of erratic power situation in the country.
Speaking on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 FM on Monday, Mr Bawa said it’s absolutely clear that “ECG cannot meet their revenue target to be able to run their plants” signaling serious financial challenges in the power sector.
According to the Bongo lawmaker, government should have provided a non-item in the Budget. ie 2018,2019 to cater for the shortfall, after the tariff reduction but it failed to do so.
Energy Minister John Peter Amewu has dismissed claims that Ghana will be plunged into darkness[dumsor] again following the recent interruption of power seen in the past days.
He explained the recent challenges with power is as a result of some technical challenges discounting reports of shortage of generation capacity.
Supply of power has been erratic over the past couple of days prompting the alarming situation of a possible return to the dreaded days of “dumsor,” which crippled business activities for nearly four years.
But John Peter Amewu has indicated that there were challenges of supplying gas to some of the country’s installed power plants particularly the Karpower plant at Tema in Accra.
He said the Ministry, while working to move the plant from Tema to Takoradi where constant gas supply is guaranteed, is looking to find light crude oil to be used to power other plants that are able to be fueled with both light crude and gas.
Edward Bawa commenting on the development in the power sector, said GRIDCo is being tactical with its response vis a vis the recurring power outages across the country, because it cannot bluntly blame the situation on the financial difficulties they’re facing.
“We don’t want GRIDco to be giving us the response, let the ministry tell us what the real issues are; the ministry should be able to tell us why it is so. They owe it as a duty to tell us. So Amewu should come and tell us why we’ve had erratic power supply. I’ve not seen any statement from the ministry. I’ve seen a statement from GRIDCo, ECG but I haven’t seen any statement from the ministry. And so the ministry owes it a duty to tell us- that is exactly what it is. In any case, the policy that has brought us to where we are now, was not a policy of GRIDco; it was a policy that was put in by government as a result of their 2018 Budget proposal. I have challenged them on this thing on the floor of parliament on Thursday. I got up and said this was the reason and none of them challenged me. They should challenge me that what I’m saying is not true. As part of my contribution towards the Budget debate, I raised the issue of the challenges the power sector was facing, a new debt that was being piled as a result of the policy they opted for and that is what has resulted in the two weeks of erratic power supply, and none of them challenged me” he told host Kwaku Owusu Adjei.
