FULL SPEECH: Govt regrets 'dumsor' - Dr Donkor
The Minister of Power, Dr Kwabena Donkor, has assured the country that the energy crisis that has bedeviled the country will end in a short time.
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At a press conference held in Accra Monday, Dr Donkor said his outfit was doing its best to improve power supply in the country.
Ghana’s energy crisis has deteriorated in recent times, with the authorities blaming the situation on low water level in the Akosombo dam and lack of gas to power the country’s thermal plants
Below is the full speech by the Minister of Power
MEET THE PRESS BY HON. DR. KWABENA DONKOR, MINISTER FOR POWER, ON THE CURRENT POWER SUPPLY SITUATION OF THE COUNTRY ON MONDAY FEBRURY 2, 2015
Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you very much for honouring this invitation at such a short notice.
Permit me to also thank the Minister for Communication for organizing this Press briefing.
The Ministry of Power is meeting you today to explain to all Ghanaians and to you the media in particular on the current energy situation confronting us and also use this opportunity to outline measures and strategies being adopted by my Ministry to address these challenges both in the short to long term.
Ladies and Gentlemen, The Ghana power system has continued to experience supply inadequacies for some time now mainly due to the non-availability of some generating units through faults, mandatory inspection and routine maintenance, poor hydrology, fuel supply challenges amongst others.
It is worthy of note that whilst the country has been experiencing an exponential increase in the demand for energy over the years, it is sad to mention that there has not been a commensurate increase in generation capacity to match the demand. Historical records will indicate that in the year 1967 after the completion of the Akosombo Dam our peak demand was 100mw whilst available generation was at about 600mw. Demand has since kept increasing leading to a recorded peak demand of 1,366.50mw in the year 2008, the peak suppressed demand for 2015 is projected at 2,300mw.
Today we are shedding 440MW during offpeak period as against planned 250MW and 650MW at peak as against 350MW.
Ladies and Gentlemen we have been working around the clock to increase our generation capacity to match up with the increasing demand; this has culminated in an increased installed capacity from 1,810mw in the year 2008 to 2,845.5mw as we speak today.
Projected Ghana demand for this week is estimated at 2,109 MW. The total available generation capacity is currently at 1,494 MW (peak) and 1,238 MW (off-peak) respectively, this therefore leaves a deficit in generation capacity on the National Interconnected Transmission Network (NITS).
As stated earlier, with 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 is obvious. As at today the following generating plants are unavailable:
• Two units at Akosombo cannot be operated while the other four can only operate at reduced output of 125MW instead of the rated 170MW due low water level
• One out of four units unit at Kpong is out of service for retrofit.
• Bui runs one unit from 08:00 h and up to three (3) units for the peak period.
• TAPCO unit No. 2 is limited to 60 MW due to high exhaust temperature spread and load tunnel temperature.
• TICO unit No. 2 is down after a system trip whilst Unit No.1 is limited to 80 MW due to high exhaust temperature spread on the unit.
• CENIT plant is down for Hot Gas Path Inspection
• Half of Sunon Asogli plant is down due to contaminated lube oil
These have therefore led to supply inadequacies leading to the current load shedding that we are all experiencing.
On behalf of the Ministry of Power, permit to state that we very much concerned about the current supply challenges confronting the nation and its attendant consequences on industry, homes and the general citizenry, 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 and also to undertake measures to ensure that we continue with our long term vision to ensure that we have adequate, reliable and sustainable energy in the foreseeable future.
On behalf of the sector I wish to express my regret at the current situation.
Our primary focus however, is to address the short term challenges without losing focus on our medium term development plans.
i) To this end the Ministry is working on different Emergency Power arrangements to shore up the supply situation. These arrangements will eventually increase our generation capacity by about 1,000MW in the short term and ultimately provide us the platform to pursue the medium to long term solutions. We are hopeful that these measures will stabilize the situation. To achieve this, the following power plants are being pursued:
-250MW project at Aboadze
-2 x 225MW Powership
-250MW GE Plant
Whilst the above is ongoing, we shall continue to work assiduously to restore already existing plants that have been shut down in order to mitigate the situation.
In addition to this, the Ministry of Power in collaboration with the relevant stakeholders have already made significant progress towards the completion and commissioning of the under-listed projects;
• 220MW Kpone Thermal Power Project (KTPP)
• 110MW Tico Expansion Project
ii) Medium -Term
In the medium term, the Ministry is taking steps to add in excess of 3,000MW through the following projects:
• 360MW Asogli Phase 2 Project ( sod has been cut)
• 350MW CenPower Project (Sod has been cut)
• 360MWJacobsen Project (Parliamentary approval obtained for GCSA)
• 240MW Amandi Project (Parliamentary approval obtained for GCSA)
• GE 1,000 Project (Discussions ongoing)
• 1,000MW of ‘clean’ coal into the generation mix.
• Use of solar in households and hotels for basic lighting and water heating to free grid power for industrial use
The purpose of adding on substantial generation capacities is to create the needed Reserve Margin to efficiently and effectively run a power supply system that is robust and resilient to meet our increasing demand. With the adequate Reserve Margin, planned and unplanned shut down of power plants would not result in any deficit in generation as it is today.
Country men and women, we must recognize the fact that we have exhausted all our major hydro potential and going forward, we would have to depend a lot more on non-hydro sources.
Whilst Ghanaians may appreciate the enormity of the challenge we face and the efforts Government is taking to address them, we are also well aware of the concerns and frustrations expressed by the citizenry in respect the seemingly haphazard nature of the load shedding scheme. The questions often asked is, how does the load-shedding program work and how come that the lights go off at times when customers are scheduled to have lights?
These are legitimate questions and as managers of the sector shall endevour to stick to the time tables we generate as much as possible. This enables all of us to plan our lives around the time tables as published.
The Ministry of Power has taken cognizance of the concerns of some Ghanaians concerning the load shedding being implemented by ECG. Consequently, the Ministry has directed ECG to undertake the following measures:
i) Publication of the load shedding schedule
ii) Ensure equity and
iii) urgently attend to isolated outages not directly related to the load shedding
Whilst the Ministry and its agencies commit to stick to the load shedding time table, there are occasions where ECG has had to shed more than its planned schedule in order to prevent system collapse.
The Ministry has further directed the Energy Commission to intensify education on Demand Side Management particularly conservation of power.
Ladies and gentlemen, it has become imperative for all of us to contribute our quota in the light of the challenges confronting us currently. In view of this, Industry and Mines are also shedding one-third of their normal load amounting to 130 MW daily. It is our hope that we shall restore power to industry as soon as practicable taking into account the important role it plays in our socio-economic environment.
I am happy to inform you that the newly created Ministry of Power has commenced the process of restructuring of some of the Power Sector Institutions in order to achieve the expected results. Some level of efficiency will have to be introduced in power generation in this country in order to achieve sustainability, going forward.
Conclusion
Ladies and Gentlemen, I wish to assure you that the Ministry of Power is working around the clock to end this current load shedding in the short term and also implement long term measures to avoid future recurrence of load shedding.
We therefore wish to appeal for your cooperation during these challenging times. Ladies and gentlemen, there is a popular adage which says that the darkest period of the night is the period just before day break. We assure you that we are closer to daybreak than we think.
Thank you very much.