The Ministry of Energy has responded to assertions by a former Minister of Power, Dr Kwabena Donkor, that Ghana is likely to return to the period of erratic power supply, popularly known as dumsor, if efforts are not made by the government to add to the generation capacity within two years.
“In line with our projected demand and the prudent management of the energy sector, the Ministry of Energy is confident that there is no way this country will go back to the dark days of ‘dumsor’.”
The response by the Ministry, contained in a statement dated Thursday, April 7, comes a few days after Dr Donkor, who is the first Power Minister, met with some journalists to express his fears.
He told them the amount of power added to the generated reserve is insignificant and could plunge the country into dumsor.
“This country is most likely to face load-shedding in the next two years if urgent steps are not taken from this moment to increase our power generation,” the Pru East Member of Parliament (MP) said.
But the response by the Energy Ministry diagnosed the problem which led to the energy crisis under the erstwhile Mahama administration, for which the Power Ministry was created.
It said the main causes of poor hydrology due to over-drafting of hydro dams, inadequate fuel supply to thermal plants and financial challenges have been addressed by the current administration.
It stressed that the total generation capacity added by this government is 421MW.
“This brings Ghana’s total installed capacity to 5,358.50MW, against the backdrop of current peak demand of 3,469MW which was recorded on March 18, 2022.”
It cited ongoing projects such as Early Power in Tema and Pwalugu Hydro and Solar Hybrid Plant in the Upper East Region as going to add to the generated capacities.
“The Ministry therefore rejects the assertion by the former Power Minister that there is a risk of returning to ‘dumsor’ by virtue of the state of generational capacity.”
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com