Power challenges abate
Power consumers can now breathe a sigh of relief as power supply significantly improves after weeks of load shedding.
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According to the Deputy Minister of Power, Mr John Jinapor, there is enough fuel to power the thermal plants at the Tema and Aboadze power enclaves.
“Power supply has stabilised now and the supply that we have now meets demands and so we are not shedding load,” he said in an interview with the Daily Graphic.
Following the delivery of 950,000 barrels of crude oil from Nigeria to power dual power plants in both the Tema and the Takoradi power enclaves, he said, the situation had stabilised.
The Aboadze power enclave in Takoradi in the Western Region took delivery of 400,000 barrels, while the Tema enclave took 550,000 barrels.
The challenge
Ghana has, for the past few weeks, been going through power challenges due to power deficit of more than 300 megawatts (MW). The situation was attributed to the cut in gas supply from Nigeria Gas (N-Gas) to the Tema enclave following debts owed by the Volta River Authority (VRA).
Also, gas supply from Ghana Gas to the Aboadze power enclave had also reduced considerably as a result of challenges confronting the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah.
The Akosombo Dam was also unable to generate power at full capacity due to the low level of water in the dam.
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This compelled management in the sector to order 950,000 barrels of light crude oil from Nigeria, which order delayed for a period of time.
Many power consumers entertained the fear that the nation was gradually creeping back to the dark days of load shedding, otherwise called dumsor.
Under the circumstances, some consumers demanded a load-shedding management timetable to enable them to plan their activities, but officials declined, saying that it was a temporary problem.
More crude oil arranged
According to the deputy minister, there was enough crude oil for power generation for the month, saying arrangements were being made for the next consignment of crude oil to avoid such occurrences.
“We are working to place the next order, so that we do not have a repeat of the challenge we had,” he stated.
He added that localised outages at the distribution level were also being worked on to avoid erratic power blackouts.
Road map to pay N-Gas
When asked about the state of gas supply from Nigeria, Mr Jinapor explained that the Ministry of Power, the Ministry of Finance, N-Gas, the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo) and other stakeholders had had an extensive meeting, at which a common road map on the payment of the debt was agreed on.
Following the meeting, he said, the first instalment of $10 million was signed by the Ministry of Finance and was expected to hit the account of N-Gas.
Although he did not give details about the payment plan and the quantum of debt owed by Ghana, he said gas supply from Nigeria was expected to resume very soon.
Regarding gas supply from the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant, he said gas from the plant was able to power the AMERI plant, which runs solely on gas.
In addition, he said, the Akosombo Dam was still running on three turbines.
Generation capacity was expected to increase by about 600MW, he said, adding that “the second barge of Karpower, among other facilities, was expected this year”.
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