No more single power plants — Minister
The Power Ministry says it will no longer encourage the development of single cycle power generation plants by independent power producers (IPPs).
Advertisement
According to the sector minister, Dr Kwabena Donkor, henceforth IPPs desirous of investing in the energy sector must come on board as combined cycle.
According to him, not only are combined cycle generation units fuel efficient but would also be easy to operate on both gas and light crude oil.
Speaking at a stakeholders forum on the electricity supply situation, the minister said that the country was at a war front as far as power supply was concerned.
The forum brought together stakeholders in the power generation and distribution sectors, consumer advocacy groups, civil society organisations, the security services among other groupings.
Other sources
The minister pointed out that while 41 per cent of global electricity generation was coal based, it also comes with some environmental consequences.
He also stated that while, expert opinions have severally tasked government to invest in solar and other sources of energy, such ventures were capital intensive.
"We are not discounting other sources of energy generation. But the issue is that we cannot be so much dependent on such other sources since our peak demand cannot take the load on solar supply," he stated.
Going forward, he emphasised that the country's energy challenges could be fully addressed if institutions such as the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA) incorporated the installation of panels on homes they developed.
Emergency barges
Dr Donkor further hinted that government would by the end of next week finalise the financial closure to the processes of importing new emergency barges into the country with General Electric.
The 300 megawatts facility would be run on heavy fuel oil (HFO) and Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG).
PURC
The Executive Secretary of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Mr Samuel Sarpong, explained that the dialogue had become necessary owing to the aggravation of the situation.
"While energy conservation would be key to ensuring sustainability, it is also important for us as a country to adopt best practices that exist in countries such as Norway to be able to ensure power supply sustainability," Mr Sarpong emphasised.
Writer's email: [email protected]