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Power crisis to be resolved soon -
Veep
Accra, Jan. 31, GNA - Vice President Aliu Mahama on
Wednesday gave the assurance that full power supply to the
country would be restored soon to save Ghanaians and
businesses from the difficulties they were going through at
present.
He said: "We recognize the difficulties though, and
Government is making efforts to ensure that full power
supply is restored soon for our Independent Day celebration
on March 6, 2007.
The Vice President Mahama said this in a speech read on his
behalf by Mr Clement Abavana of the Energy Ministry at a
day's forum on the theme: "The Challenges of a Ghanaian
Independent Power Producer (IPP), Way Forward" in Accra.
The programme was organized by CenPower Generation Company
Limited, a local-based IPP which is currently developing an
IPP project at Kpone, near Tema with a capacity of 300
megawatts.
Vice President Mahama said a major reason for the current
power supply difficulty had been the inability of the
Government to secure enough resources to execute its power
supply expansion plans over the years.
"The Investment required for power supply capacity additions
are huge. Government has not been able to secure such
investment capital on its own.
"Given the inadequacy of our funding from traditional
sources, the private sector is a welcome lifeline to
ensuring electricity security and adequacy," he said.
Vice President Mahama announced that President John Agyekum
Kufuor had recently assented to amendments to the Volta
River Development Act, the Act under which the Volta River
Authority was established.
He said the amendment to the Act had set the stage for the
establishment of an autonomous national transmission company
that would provide an open access transmission highway to
enable power generators to reach their respective customers
without discrimination.
"We believe the new environment will promote the growth of
multiple electricity generating companies that will pave the
way to achieving the objective of promoting a competitive
power supply market," Vice President Mahama said.
He also announced that the Energy Commission in conjunction
with the Ministry of Energy was formulating a comprehensive
rules and regulations in respect of the new electricity
supply market.
"I am aware that the absence of the market rules and
regulations are discouraging the development of Independent
Power Producers (IPPs)", Vice President Mahama said.
He said the Government recognised the importance of the
Kpone Project as an important step towards achieving a fully
independent and deregulated market and noted that the West
African Gas Pipeline would be pursued in earnest to provide
a long term and secure fuel supply for emerging IPPs.
Mr Isaac Sam, Government Advisor on Energy, said the country
would need about 600 megawatts of power between now and 2010
and an additional 115 megawatts up to 2015, which required
the need to marshal every effort for attainment.
Mr Sam said immediate measures being undertaken by
Government to save the situation at present included the
possibility to increase the energy import from Cote d'Ivoire
and the installation of generating systems.
Nana Brew-Butler, Chairman of CenPower, said the Kpone
project began in 1998 through the collaborative support of
Infraco Limited, a United Kingdom (UK) based company whose
share capital was provided by donor groups in the UK;
Netherlands; Sweden; Switzerland; Austria and the World
Bank.
GNA
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