I am a social and not a natural scientist, hence I never venture to engage myself in arguments which require definitions or deeper explanation of scientific terms. But for once, I have since the creation of the Ministry of Power, in addition to the Ministry of Energy, tried to find the difference or differences between the two.
Generally, experts say the word ‘energy’ is used to describe a number of different things, including how people heat or cool their homes, how they fuel their cars, and even their feelings, that is, the strength in them at a particular time. Energy is not something that one can see or feel, but one can rather see or feel the effects when energy is transferred from one place to another.
It is also said that energy is what makes change happen and can be transferred from one object to another, and also be transformed from one form to another. Energy is the capacity to do work; it is power integrated over time.
Power, on the other hand, according to experts, is the rate at which work is done or energy is transferred. They say that is not energy, yet it is often confused with energy. The watt is the most commonly used unit of measure for power. It measures the rate of energy transfer.
A typical illustration experts use to explain the difference between the two is that watt equals a joule per second, and therefore if an iron uses five joules of energy every second, then the power of the iron is five joules per second, or five watts.
With these explanations, I have been wondering what compelled President John Mahama to create a Ministry of Power when the then existing Ministry of Energy’s role included the generation of energy and how it is transferred. I have no doubt that, like me, many other Ghanaians are surprised or confused about the creation of the Ministry of Power.
Task ahead
But it seems to me that, interestingly, the man for whom the Ministry of Power was created, Dr Kwabena Donkor, might also be confused about what his ministry is to do. There is no doubt that he is overwhelmed by the situation, the loose knot he has put his neck into.
Even before his vetting by Parliament, Dr Donkor was parroting around the whole place about what he would do to end the ‘dum-sor’, sorry, now it’s ‘dum-dum’, because in many places in recent times there is ‘dum’ without any ‘sor’ at all.
After his vetting, one of his keynote statements was an ultimatum to the management of the Volta River Authority and the Takoradi International Company (TICO) to end the ‘dumsor’ within six months. “I urge you to put measures in place to end the current power crisis within six months,” the media quoted him as saying.
Press conference
Last Monday, Dr Donkor addressed a press conference on the energy crisis and the ‘dum-dum’ which has almost become a permanent feature in Ghana. Unfortunately, he did not tell Ghanaians anything new. He only told us what we all know – “that there has not been a commensurate increase in generation capacity to match the demand,” and that “we have been working around the clock to increase our generation capacity to match with the increasing demand”.
This, he says, has therefore led to supply inadequacies leading to the current load shedding that Ghanaians are all experiencing. He added: “Indeed, we share the pain and agony that most Ghanaians are going through and wish to assure that we are determined to adopt every strategy necessary to bring an end to the load shedding.”
Then he went on to add that, “we are also well aware of the concerns and frustrations expressed by the citizenry in respect of the seeming haphazard nature of the load-shedding scheme.” Oh, so he does not accept that the load-shedding scheme is haphazard, but it only seems to him. It appears our minister does not live in Ghana, otherwise he will fully appreciate the haphazard nature of the load shedding.
Interestingly, while Dr Donkor does not accept that the load-shedding is haphazard, he nevertheless directed the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to (i) publish the load shedding schedule; (ii) ensure equity; and (iii) urgently attend to isolated outages not directly related to the load-shedding.
What is new about these things from a new minister appointed to come and solve the energy crisis? Before he became a minister, wasn’t he aware that the ECG publishes the load shedding schedule, but after the publication the timetable is never followed? What would be different now when the timetables are published and ECG can’t follow because there is no energy to distribute?
Timeliness
Meanwhile, like the President, the Power Minister has also made a promise that if dum-dum goes beyond 2015 he would resign, though he had before then, on the eve of Christmas last year, given the VRA a six-month ultimatum to end the current energy crisis or face the consequences. So why the one-year timeline he has given himself to resign when he had already given an indication that the crisis would be dealt with within six months?
Despite that, at his press conference, he even said he didn’t know when the crisis would end. “I can’t give specific timeline regarding when the load shedding will be over but I can assure you that it will end this year. With the kind of measures put in place, we don’t expect to see load — shedding in the coming years.” Which years?
The Minister of Energy, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, assured the nation that the Atuabo gas plant was to produce gas last August and that would have helped solve the energy crisis, yet it’s almost seven months since the promise and nothing has happened. What, therefore, informs Dr Donkor’s recent promises?
Public Relations officers
Interestingly, in all this confusion, Dr Donkor last week rather blamed public relations officers (PROs) of the various energy sector institutions for misleading the public with false information. Haba! What are PROs for, if not to defend their organisations and carry the messages which their organisations want the public to know?
Dr Donkor is fighting the gong-gong beater who is merely carrying the message instead of blaming the government and its ministers and communication team members many of whom have been giving contradictory and false information.
At best, the gong-gong beaters of the energy sector, especially those from ECG, have done their work of telling Ghanaians that they do not produce energy, but only supply, and therefore they cannot supply what they do not have.
Where was Dr Donkor when government ministers and officials, including the President, gave different predictions directly opposed to those of energy experts about the situation of the energy crisis and when it could possibly be resolved?
Dr Donkor seems to be talking too much with very little tangible action, and behaving like the bad workman fighting with his tools when he fails to perform. We are in a serious crisis and, therefore, he must stop the talking shop and confine himself to his task, otherwise he would be sacked before he resigns after his 2015 prediction.
The author is a Political Scientist, and Media and Communication Expert.
