Tell us the true story about the power challenges

Managers of the power sector have asked Ghanaians to bear with them as they work to resolve the current power challenges.

 According to them, the light crude oil to power the thermal plants was still being treated and expected to be completed by Monday.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), Mr William Amuna, who said this in an interview with the Daily Graphic, indicated that power supply was expected to improve from Monday.

Much as this appeal may sound refreshing, it cannot be soothing because the excuses seem to becoming one too many. 

As the problem of load shedding persists and becoming even worse by the day, users of this precious resource are increasingly becoming fed up with the situation and are also wondering who to believe.

What is even more baffling is the fact that all the players in the industry and the government’s spokespersons are singing different tunes from the same hymn book as far as the problem is concerned. This unfortunate situation is making people very reluctant to trust any news about this dire situation.

The Daily Graphic recalls the promises made by the President in the State of the Nation Address where he promised to fix the problem, and not just to manage it. For sometime now, however, power consumers have been waiting with bated breath for the final end to ‘dumsor’.

We find it intriguing that no one in authority is able to come out to state, in all honesty, what the real problem is so that together we can all work hard to put it behind us.

As we all search for solutions to the power challenges, the Daily Graphic thinks the real story must be told – has the problem got to do with the FPSO or is about our inability to buy crude oil to power the plants? Or is it about the lack of gas from Nigeria because we owe the suppliers so much? Could it also be the fact that we have not been able to maximise the Atuabo Gas Plant which was touted as the game changer?

From these questions, it is clear that consumers of electricity are confused because on a daily basis they read or hear stories from officialdom related to one or more of the questions asked.

Just last week, the acting Power Minister was reported to have said that the challenge would be resolved by the end of the week. Today is the last day of the week and there is still no sign on the wall.

We want to believe that the government is aware of the consequences of the terribly poor handling of this sensitive issue.

Apart from the security risk that the blackout poses, industry is also on its knees in spite of the many capital expenditure put in place to run factories..

All that the Daily Graphic is asking the authorities is simple. Tell Ghanaians the truth about the situation so that we all will tune our minds to the challenges and wait patiently for action to make the frequent power outages a thing of the past.