Be patient with govt ; Verifiable signs of improvement soon — President Mahama
The President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, has appealed to Ghanaians to continue to be patient as the government continues to make efforts to provide a lasting solution to the energy problems.
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He said he understood the challenges and frustrations of Ghanaians in the face of the current electricity load shedding.
"But I will ask Ghanaians to continue to be patient. The minister and his team are doing everything possible to try to bring on stream as much generation as possible. I know some agreements have been signed to bring in emergency power in a couple of months to ease the situation," he said.
He expressed confidence in the nation’s future when he inspected three power plants in the Tema power enclave yesterday.
These are the Sunon Asogli Power Plant, the Tema Cenit Thermal Plant and the Kpone Thermal Power Plant (KTPP).
Mr Mahama was confident that with the Asogli Power Plant set to resume full energy generation next week, there would be verifiable improvement in energy production and distribution.
He said Ghana's power demand was growing so fast that the nation needed to work hard to meet the demand and be ahead of it.
"We need to put in as much energy as possible to be able to meet the growth in demand," he said.
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President Mahama also said once Ghana could no longer rely on hydro for power generation because of the unpredictability of the rains, thermal generation was where the emphasis should be.
"So thermal is going to be our main source of generation and hydro probably will become the backup," he said.
At the Sunon Asogli Power Plant, an independent power producer, the President was informed that the plant would revert to its full generation of 200 megawatts (MW) next week.
That is expected to ease the current load-shedding exercise being experienced in the country.
The plant was shut down last week for maintenance work.
The Chairman of Sunon Asogli, Togbe Afede XVI, told President Mahama that the work would be completed at the weekend to pave way for full generation of energy.
He also said the company was seriously working on the second phase of its expansion programme, which would add 360MW to its installed capacity.
He said 180MW would be completed by the end of this year, while an additional 180MW would come on stream early next year.
Availability of gas
Togbe Afede said the Sunon Asogli Plant would have no operational problems, since the President had given an assurance of the availability of gas, which was critical to its power generation.
He also stated that the President had assured the management of the Sunon Asogli Power Plant of the payment of all money due the company, while the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) would be restructured.
He thanked the President for the tremendous support extended to the company.
At the Cenit Plant, also a private power producer owned by Cenit Energy Limited, President Mahama inspected repair and maintenance works underway.
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At the KTPP, a government of Ghana/Volta River Authority (VRA) power plant, President Mahama was briefed by Mr Kirk Koffi, the Chief Executive of the VRA.
The project started in October 2012 and the first phase of the gas turbine will be ready for inauguration in December this year.