Dumsor ends
The government has announced the end to load shedding, otherwise called dumsor, that has tormented consumers and businesses for more than three years.
A statement signed by the Head of Public Affairs of the Ministry of Power, Mr Kweku Sersah-Johnson, said: “The Ministry of Power wishes to inform the public that its load-shedding programme in respect of electricity supply has been brought to an end.
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“The ministry takes this opportunity to express its profound gratitude and appreciation to the entire citizenry and residents of Ghana for their forbearance and understanding during those difficult times.”
It said the ministry and its agencies wished to assure the public that they would continue to pursue policies and programmes to consolidate the gains so far made in the generation and transmission of electricity for the country.
The end of ‘dumsor’ comes just at the end of the timeline that the Minister of Power, Mr Kwabena Donkor, gave that he would resign if the load shedding did not end.
In March this year, Dr Donkor obligated himself to end dumsor by the end of December 2015.
However, last week Mr Donkor told the Parliamentary Select Committee on Government Assurances that barring any unforeseen difficulties, the power crisis would end by the second week of January 2016.
Therefore, the new development will come as a big relief to Dr Donkor and many people whose businesses and domestic activities have been affected by dumsor.
What the President said
Delivering the State of the Nation Address in Parliament in February, 2015, President John Dramani Mahama assured Ghanaians of government commitment to solve the energy crisis facing the country rather than manage the situation at hand.
“In the past what we have done has been to manage the situation. I do not intend to manage the situation as has been done in the past. I intend to fix it! I owe it to the Ghanaian people. I, John Dramani Mahama, will fix this energy challenge,” he said.
Background
The energy crisis has bedevilled Ghana since 2012, affecting industrial activities and small-scale businesses and leading to the dismissal of many workers.
Individual lifestyles have also been seriously disturbed, while a good number of potential investors have turned to other countries with regular power supply to make investments that will make good returns within real time.
The authorities of the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) Limited and the Volta River Authority (VRA) attributed the crisis to the low water level in the Akosombo Dam, the breakdown of some machines and lack of gas to power some of the country’s thermal plants.
The load shedding began in 2012 following damage caused to the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) by the anchor of a ship that was trying to avoid a pirate attack in August of that year.
That technical problem affected the supply of gas to the VRA and the Sunon Asogli Plant in Tema which, when in operation, generated 200 megawatts (MW) of power.
The low water levels in the Akosombo Hydroelectric Dam also made it difficult for the Akosombo Hydroelectric project to generate enough power to feed the grid, which further worsened the power situation.
Energy capacity
In February 2015, Dr Donkor indicated that the country had an increased installed capacity from 1,810MW in 2008 to 2,845.5MW as of February 2015.
The total available generation capacity was 1,494MW (peak) and 1,238MW (off-peak), which left a deficit in generation capacity on the National Interconnected Transmission Network (NITS).
He said with an installed generation capacity of about 2,845.5MW, dependable capacity of less than 2,300MW and a suppressed peak demand of about 2,130MW, with no redundancy, the power inadequacy was obvious.
Initiatives
Dr Donkor said the government was working on different emergency power arrangements to shore up the supply situation.
Those arrangements, he said, would increase the country’s generation capacity by about 1,000MW in the short term and ultimately provide the country the platform to pursue the medium to long-term solutions.
The 250MW project at Aboadze, the 2 x 225MW Powership and the 250MW GE plants were some of the initiatives.
The main success was the Karpower barge which has added 215MW to the national grid.
Dr Donkor’s headache
Since assuming office as Minister of Power, Dr Donkor is said to have been having sleepless nights over the power crisis especially when he was on record to have critised some officials of the power sector for their inability to fix the dumsor.
Until his appointment, Dr Donkor was the Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Energy and was instrumental in parliamentary approval of loans agreements to undertake power projects.
Dr Donkor played key roles in the establishment of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Company and the Petroleum Commission.
He has a fair idea of the energy sector and energy players are watching with eagle’s eyes how he navigates the complex power challenges in the days ahead as it is not clear whether as a nation we have the means to buy adequate gas and light crude oil to power the numerous thermal plants.
GRIDCo
Speaking on Multi TV’s News Analysis Show this week, the Chief Executive Officer of GRIDCo, Mr William Amuna, said currently power generation in the country was matching demand.
“We have not been shedding load at all throughout the country. Virtually all the generation plants are operational. We even have one unit which we are not running now in Tema but we still have adequate supply,” he said.