Power outages: Faulty plants let us down – Energy Ministry Spokesperson
Spokesperson for the Energy Ministry, Nana Oppong Damoah, has parried allegations that government had no alternative plans to mitigate a shortfall in power supply that has caused power outages across the country.
According to him, there was an alternative plan to make up for some 750MW shortfall due to a routine maintenance exercise, however, faulty power plants scuttled that arrangement.
“Yes indeed, we had alternative plans but some faults developed [at the power plants] and it is these faults that have let us down; because if you have fuel, no matter the quantity of fuel that you have, if…the plants are faulty, there is nothing you can do about it,” he said on MultiTV’s PM Express, Monday.
He said had the alternative plans been successful, only 250MW shortfall would have been recorded because the contingency plans were meant to provide 500MW of electricity.
According to Mr Damoah, two units – Unit 2 and 3 – at the Takoradi International Company Limited (TICO), Takoradi Power Company, and Unit 4 of the Kpong Thermal Plant are among the faulty power plants that scuttled the contingency plans.
He is, however, confident that, as has been previously announced, the intermittent power outages, end this week.
Over the past six weeks, frequent power cuts in parts of the country have stirred fears that Ghana may be returning to the dreaded period of a persistent, irregular, and unpredictable electric power outage – popularly called ‘dumsor’.
Although the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) announced a planned maintenance exercise that will cause power disruptions in many parts of Accra from Tuesday, February 25, 2020, many say the intermittent outages preceded this announcement.
Critics, mostly from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), have said the power outages are the result of poor management and have asked the government to publish a load shedding time table to enable Ghanaians to plan their daily schedules.
