Deputy Energy Minister Andrew Egyapa Mercer has announced that the challenges leading to recent power outages in the country have been completely resolved.
He assured Ghanaians that there would be no more intermittent power outages, commonly referred to as ‘Dumsor,’ from Thursday, January 11, 2024.
In an interview with Bernard Avle on Citi FM, Mr. Mercer stated that the Ministry of Finance had, on January 10, 2024, disbursed $10 million to the West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAGPCo) for gas supply, reinforcing the commitment to uninterrupted power 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, the Executive Director of the Institute for Energy Security (IES), Nana Amoasi VII, says Ghana is likely to experience more outages in the coming days.
He said the recent outages are a result of financial challenges.
In an interview on Citi FM, Nana Amoasi VII, disclosed that the government has failed to pay some key players in the energy sector, including the WAPCo, leading to the erratic power cuts.
He indicated that the plants for electricity are ready to work; however, the fuel, which is natural gas, to be fed into the plant to function effectively, has been the challenge.
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 further indicated that if the government fails to generate funds to pay all the partners involved in the electricity sector, the country may experience 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.”
