‘Dumsor’ will never occur again— Ministry of Energy
The Ministry of Energy has refuted claims that Ghana risks returning to the days of erratic power supply also known as “dumsor” due to the state of the country’s energy generation capacity.
It would be recalled the former Power Minister, Dr Kwabena Donkor at a press conference in Accra warned that Ghana might soon return to such troubling days if urgent steps were not taken by the government.
He said the crisis might resurface as the current government has not added significantly to the country’s energy generation capacity even though demand kept increasing.
Responding to this, the Energy Ministry in a statement released in Accra yesterday said the claims made by Dr Donkor that the government has not added “significantly” to the energy generation capacity was 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 statement said currently there was prudent management of hydro resources, which included the hybridisation 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,” it said.
The statement added that, under the Akufo-Addo-led government, gas flow was 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 was confident that in line with the projected demand and the prudent management of the energy sector, there was no way that this country would 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.
Source: www.spotonnews.net
