Energy Ministry inaugurates boards for three entities
The newly reconstituted board of the Energy Commission has been charged to take bold steps to finalise work on the Renewable Energy Master Plan (REMP) before the end of this year.
Advertisement
The Deputy Minister of Energy, Mr William Owuraku-Aidoo, who gave this directive, said there was the need to implement the REMP as soon as practicable to harness the country’s renewable energy resources.
He was speaking at the inauguration of the boards of three agencies under the Ministry of Energy in Accra yesterday.
Boards
The entities are the Energy Commission, the Bui Power Authority and the Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company (GCMC) Limited.
The seven-member board of the Energy Commission is chaired by Professor George Panyin Hagan, while those of the Bui Power Authority and the GCMC are chaired by Ambassador Afare Apeadu Donkor and Mr Frank Boakye Agyen, respectively.
REMP
The country has a target of increasing the supply of renewable energy in the national electricity grid from 38 megawatts (MW) in 2015 to 2561MW by 2030.
In line with that objective, the Energy Commission, with financial and technical support from the Danish government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is developing the REMP to tap the potential of renewable energy.
When implemented, the REMP will provide a strategic framework for the promotion and development of the country’s renewable energy resources to build a resilient energy sector.
The plan also seeks to diversify the sources of energy of the country by reducing the dependence on biomass as the main fuel for thermal energy applications and promoting the local content and participation in the renewable energy sector.
Mr Owuraku-Aidoo further urged the Energy Commission to take steps to review the Gas Master Plan to address some major lapses contained in it.
The deputy minister also urged the newly constituted board to support initiatives to review the plan.
He also tasked them to lead a process to connect the remaining 16 per cent of the country to the national electricity grid.
Bui Power Authority
Mr Owuraku-Addo also urged the board for the Bui Power Authority to explore the potential in wind energy.
He stressed that “Ghana has vast opportunities in renewable energy resources, especially in the solar and hydro sectors, so we need to work to ensure that solar generation on our energy mix increases from its current 22.5 MW to about 300 MW in 2020.”
He urged the board to use the pool of expertise and resources at its disposal to expand solar energy, especially to the northern sector of the country.
Mr Owuraku-Aidoo also charged the GCMC board to address challenges such as the inability to procure raw materials for the continuous production of cylinders and lack of internal controls.
Board members urged
The Executive Chairman of the State Enterprises Commission (SEC), Mr Stephen Asamoah Boateng, tasked the board members to realign the operation of the entities they represent with the government’s initiatives.
He further urged the members of the three boards to take advantage of the government’s training programme for officials at MDAS to upgrade their technical abilities.