The confusion gripping the Akufo Addo administration over the power crisis (Dumsor) plaguing the country has escalated as the Chief Executive Officer of the Bui Power Authority has launched a frontal attack at the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) for reportedly lying that the second hydropower dam has shut down.
GRIDCO in a recent press conference had claimed part of the reasons the country is suffering an electricity crisis is because Bui dam had shut down its power plant due to low water levels in the dams.
However, Bui CEO, Fred Oware has fired GRIDCo saying its blame on Bui was unfortunate, saying, “…They can’t put it on Bui because we knew last year that the supply plan would be what it is. And so they should have looked at our supply plan and made alternative arrangements to fill in the gap but to say that there is dumsor because of Bui is quite misleading.”
He slammed the power distribution company: “Let me be bold enough and say that, I think GRIDCo has misled the Minister in making such a sad statement. Because as we sit here talking right now, Bui is in operation. We have three units which work at 133. It is not true.”
Mr. Oware admitted that water levels had is gone down, but quickly noted that this was not an unforeseen event. “We knew this and last year when we submitted our supply plan, we indicated quite clearly that this year we will not be able to generate as much as we generated last year,” he said.
Although the Bui Power Plant is not working at full capacity, Mr. Oware said the phenomenon was predicted and communicated to GRIDCo in its supply plan for 2021.
The Bui Dam is supposed to generate some 400 megawatts at peak times, but due to the situation, it is only producing less than 25% of its capacity at 90 megawatts.
Meanwhile, the Bui Power Authority said it has added 22 megawatts from its solar project onto the national grid.
The Akufo Addo administration and the new Minister of Energy, Mathew Opoku-Prempeh have been at the butt end of jokes and anger by the Ghanaian populace by their attempt to sugar-coat the power crisis, saying Ghana is not experiencing Dumsor which means “on and off”, a situation that is currently ongoing with the erratic power supply and power blackouts dogging the entire country.