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Govt advised to exercise caution in solving power crisis

Govt advised to exercise caution in solving power crisis

The Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas has called on the government to exercise caution in finding solutions to the power crisis facing the country and not take desperate measures that will create more problems later.

Accordingly, it has asked the government to discard the idea of introducing coal into the energy mix of the country.

It said while it appreciated the economic imperatives that drove that idea, the environmental consequences outweighed the economic benefits.

The platform made the call when it briefed some media houses in Accra on its position on the power crisis facing the country at the weekend. 

Coal energy 

“We do not think that plans to introduce coal into the energy mix is a good idea. The age of coal is simply over and coal plants are being shut down in many places for health and environmental reasons,” Dr Steve Manteaw, the Chairman of the  platform, who acted as the spokesman, said.

He rather called for the country’s renewable energy policy to be revised to provide incentives for those who might want to generate their own power for household use.

“The revised policy should provide tax concessions for companies to establish solar panel manufacturing plants here in Ghana, using the abundance of silica sand at Abosso in the Western Region as a further attraction,” he suggested.

He said the current energy mix had a very narrow spectrum and bred avoidable competition between power for domestic use and power for industrial production.

“We call on the government to take a serious view of the suggestion to broaden the mix much more in favour of renewable, as there is usually no fuel cost associated with this source of energy,” he stressed.

Restore liquidity health to ECG

On the liquidity challenge facing the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Dr Manteaw identified the government as the biggest debtor to the company and asked the government to make good its debt to the ECG.

He noted, however, that the government was currently facing financial difficulties and might not be able to clear the debt, contending that that might be the reason for the recent suggestion that students of public  tertiary institutions were to pay for the utilities they consumed.

He said communication on the issue had been sloppy, thereby eliciting resistance, and contended that if the government had been candid about the liquidity problem facing it, the public would have been sympathetic.

“As it is now, the policy comes across as arbitrary and inequitable, in so far as it does not affect ministers and other public functionaries who continue to enjoy free power, even though by their economic status they should be able to pay for the power they consume at their residences,” he added.

On the power barges to be brought in to augment power supply, he urged the ECG and the Ministry of Power to make details of the private partnership agreement (PPA) it had entered into with Karpowership known to the public and take urgent steps to bring the contract to Parliament for scrutiny and approval.

Karpowership is the company building the power barges.

Writer’s email: [email protected]

 

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