Constant electricity supply my priority — Herbert Krapa

The Minister of State at the Ministry of Energy, Herbert Krapa, has assured the nation that the government will continue to work assiduously to keep the lights on for domestic, commercial and industrial usage.

He said the ministry had been proactive and had kept constant touch with the players in the energy sector so that challenges were nipped in the bud to ensure that power generation was sufficient and unceasing, noting that “constant electricity supply is my priority”.

Mr Krapa gave the assurance in an answer to a question from journalists when he paid a working visit to the Aboadze Energy Enclave in Sekondi in the Western Region.

Accompanied by technocrats from the ministry, Mr Krapa visited the West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo), Amandi Energy Plant and the Volta River Authority (VRA) and its different plants, the Tiko, the Taka, as well as the T3.

The minister said he was in the enclave “to see these facilities for myself, engage the engineers, understand if there are some issues so that when we are back in Accra, we will be able to work around these issues to ensure that power generation is sufficient”.

At each of the plants, the minister and his entourage were briefed by the engineers and taken around the plant. Mr Krapa commended the management and engineers at the various plants for running the systems that kept the lights on.

“Ghanaians rely on us, count on us to make sure that the lights are on, and it comes from  power generation,” he said.

Ghana Gas

It came out that there was an ongoing 17-day planned maintenance shutdown at the Ghana Gas processing plant at Atuabo for the replacement and maintenance of some of the plant's components.

Although the shutdown was two days old as of last Friday, it had not affected the power supply because alternative arrangements had been made to cater for the deficit.

Touching on the shutdown, Mr Krapa said: “Today is the second day of Ghana Gas's planned maintenance outage. The lights are on across the country, that is so because of the planning that went into the process.”

He explained that fingers crossed, no challenge was anticipated from ENI, which was the other supplier of gas, and expressed confidence that power generation would be stable for distribution across the country. 

Maintenance

Answering questions about the shutdown of Amandi in November this year, for major maintenance, Mr Krapa explained that all these outages for maintenance were usually planned a year ahead.

“And so last year in November, we met at Royal Senchi together with all the players and made a plan. This outage maintenance that the Amandi Twin City officials are talking about, as you heard them say, is an emergency one. It's one that came up after we did the planning,” he stated.

He indicated that the ministry would sit around the table with the managers to discuss the matter to ensure the safety of the plant and the provision of energy were balanced, and noted that “The decision will be taken to make sure that we meet both important variables for generation”.