Deputy Energy Minister Andrew Egyapa Mercer has said that the issues that caused recent power disruptions in the country have been fully fixed.
He told Ghanaians that there will be no more intermittent power outages, known as ‘Dumsor,’ beginning Thursday, January 11, 2024.
In an interview with Bernard Avle on Citi FM’s Citi Breakfast Show, Mr. Mercer indicated that on January 10, 2024, the Ministry of Finance transferred $10 million to the West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAGPCo) for gas supplies, reiterating the commitment to uninterrupted electricity supply.
“What has happened over the past few days is that some obligation owed by GNPC to WAGPCo was an issue. WAGPCo threatened [and] GNPC made some initial payments [but] it wasn’t satisfactory. We requested the Ministry of Finance to top up. We had to go through some approval processes.
“As of yesterday [Wednesday] evening the Ministry of Finance had approved a sum of 10 million to pay for a part of that debt. So that was the hiccup that we encountered that led to the power outages we encountered in the past few days. But that has been resolved.”
Mr Mercer added “Yesterday, WAGPCo said it was going to restore and that was accordingly made from the West to the East, to power plants in the East. And so there is no ‘dumsor’ to warrant the shedding.”
Meanwhile, Nana Amoasi VII, Executive Director of the Institute for Energy Security (IES), predicts that Ghana will see further outages in the coming days.
He stated that the latest disruptions are due to budgetary issues.
In an interview with Citi FM’s Eyewitness News, Nana Amoasi VII revealed that the government has neglected to pay several important participants in the energy industry, particularly WAPCo, resulting in irregular power outages.
He stated that the electrical plants are ready to go; however, the fuel, natural gas, that must be pumped into the plant for it to function properly has proven to be a hurdle.
He said:
“The generation bits are having that challenge. It’s not like the plants are not ready to work; they are ready to work, but no fuel. This time we are talking about natural gas, which is to be fed into the plants to get them running and put the power on the bridge for us to get in our various homes and businesses.”
“All the power plants in the western corridor are working but to move that natural gas from the western corridor to the eastern corridor has been a challenge because the WAPCo, being the transporter or transmitter of the natural gas, has chosen not to move the gas. WAPCo has shut down its gas.”
He also stated that if the government fails to raise funding to pay all of the partners participating in the electrical industry, the country may face more outages.
“Until we position ourselves to generate enough revenue in the sector to pay all the players, at one moment you’ll find that WAPCo will open the gas, but then other plants will also choose to shut down because the government owns them.”
