The Ministry of Energy has rejected the assertion by former Power Minister, Dr. Kwabena Donkor, that Ghana risks returning to the days of erratic power cuts also known as ‘dumsor’ because of the state of the country’s energy generation capacity.
Dr. Donkor at a press conference in Accra warned that Ghana might soon return to such troubling days if urgent steps are not taken by the government.
Dr. Donkor said the crisis might resurface because the current government has not added significantly to the country’s energy generation capacity even though demand keeps increasing.
Responding to this, the Energy Ministry in a statement said the claim by Dr. Donkor that the NPP government has not added ‘significantly’ to the energy generation capacity is flawed.
The Ministry indicated that the pervasive ‘dumsor’ 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.
In 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.
The Ministry is confident that in line with the projected demand and the prudent management of the energy sector, there is no way that this country will go back to the dark days of dumsor.
“We wish to urge Dr. Donkor to first seek the correct information on this and similar issues from the Ministry in the future before going public with pronouncements that are not only incorrect but also have the tendency to mislead the public and cause unnecessary concerns. This is particularly due to the fact that he is a former Minister for Power and his pronouncements, therefore, carry some weight.”
“We urge Ghanaians to rest assured that the Ministry of Energy, under the leadership of Hon. Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, remains committed to solving every challenge in the generation, transmission and distribution system of the energy sector. We are committed to keeping the lights on and the nation moving,” it added.
