Ghana hit by widespread power outages
Accra, Ghana (PANA) - Ghanaians are experiening intermittent power cuts reminiscent of serious load shedding days from 2014-2016, known in Ghana as "dumsor" (switch it in and off) when the entire country went several hours a day without electricity.
The Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), the state-owned power transmission company, said in a statement on Thursday the blackouts were due to gas shortages at power production facilities.
GRIDCo did not, however, indicate when power would be restored to affected areas or communities.
“Limited gas supply” at a power installation in Tema, located east of the Ghanaian capital, Accra, has led to “a supply gap of 550MW at peak time”, the statement said.
Gas is produced in the west and transported to Tema in the east where most of the power generating plants are located.
The gas is transported to the east by the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo), whose invoices have not been settled for months. The major gas supplier cut supply this week, resulting in the widespread unannounced power outages.
Recent studies expect the country’s energy crisis to worsen over the coming years, starting from this year.
“Ghana’s energy supply requires urgent, purposeful and significant investment to undo the current precarious situation the country finds itself,” said research and policy think tank, Centre for Socioeconomic Studies (CSS).
Meanwhile, the government of Ghana (GoG) has reportedly reached an agreement with WAPCo to settle a US$20 million debt.
Local media reports indicate that despite the tentative agreement reached between GoG and WAPCo, some outages are expected to happen since the agreement does not guarantee that there will be gas from the west to Tema shortly.
Addressing the outage and its cause as contained in the GRIDCo statement, a member of the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, Edward Bawa, tasked government to quickly deal with the lingering debt.
“Government must find a way or make an arrangement with WAPCo as to how that debt can be paid. If WAPCO begins to have some comfort that government has kept in touch to do the payment, then, I believe that it will work."
“Government must be working to see how they can give WAPCo some level of comfort to continue transmitting gas from Obuasi to Tema or else we are going to be in trouble. If the gas does not come, what it simply means is that the plants cannot run because they use fuel. And if they cannot run, you’d have that 'dumsor',” he said.
Bawa stated that WAPCo has not been paid since January 2023, hence the accumulation of bills and the resort to cutting supply.
-0- PANA RA 28Oct2023
