Dumsor under control - Ministry of Energy assures consumers
For the past three weeks, residents of Accra, Tema and other parts of the country have complained about the return to dumsor as a result of intermittent power outages. The outages have generated raging debate among consumers as to whether dumsor is rearing its ugly head again.
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Domestic consumers and business operators have complained about the impact of dumsor on their lives and businesses, but the Ministry of Energy has given an assurance that the situation is under control.
It has assured the public that power supply will return to normal by the end of yesterday following the completion of maintenance works on the plants of the Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC).
The completion of the works will allow the connection and commissioning of the gas supply system from the TEN Fields to the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant.
According to a statement signed by the Communications Officer at the Ministry of Energy, Mr King A. Wellington, the schedule for the completion of the works, which was originally slated from February 3 to 20, 2017, had to be extended to February 26, 2017 due to certain operational difficulties experienced by Tullow Oil.
Maintenance shutdown
“We wish to note that on the assumption of the NPP government, our first major objective was to stop a looming dumsor resulting from these operational challenges,” the statement said.
The Volta River Authority (VRA), the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), on January 23, 2017, issued a joint press release in connection with the planned shutdown by the Ghana Gas for maintenance.
The release explained that the tie-in of TEN gas to the Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) necessitated the shutdown of the gas processing plant, consequently leading to the curtailment of natural gas to the Aboadze Power Enclave and the shut down of the AMERI Power Plant of 230 megawatts (MW).
It added that the entire Takoradi Thermal Plant and two thirds of the capacity of the Takoradi International Power Plant (TICO) were shut down and had remained so for manufacturer-warranted major maintenance works which became necessary to protect the plants from long-term operational failures.
It said among all the power plants in the Aboadze Power Enclave, only TICO was available, with only 110MW of generation, adding that fuel stocks for the operation of thermal power plants in Tema had run out in the second week of January 2017 due to financial challenges, a combination of those factors creating the conditions for the return of dumsor.
“The government took the necessary steps to prevent the return of dumsor by procuring light crude oil and diesel to operate the power plants which, hitherto, were not being operated due to lack of fuel,” the statement explained.
Power disruptions
On the recent power disruptions, it said that development was not related to a deficit in generation but due to faults triggered by the severe rainstorm that hit parts of the country, particularly the Greater Accra, Ashanti and Central regions, from February 25 to 26, 2017.
It assured the public that essential infrastructural works, such as the connection of the TEN Fields to the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant, would always be carried out in a prudent, safe and efficient manner.
“We wish to further state that dumsor did not end with the election of a new government. Even though we have adequate installed generation capacity, only half is available due to various technical and financial challenges,” the statement added.
It gave an assurance that the government was determined to address those challenges but added that “during this period, we will continue to face occasional temporary setbacks until we move to a more sustainable state of uninterrupted power supply”.