The Minority in Parliament is claiming vindication after a report commissioned by the Akufo-Addo government concluded that Ghana needs more power generation capacity in order to avoid power crises in the foreseeable future.
According to the Minority, the report exposes Vice President Bawumia’s recent claim that the government is saddled with an excess capacity problem that has cost over Ghc17billion.
In a statement reacting to the report, Yapei Kusawgu MP, John Abdulai Jinapor, said the revelation also exposes the claim by the Akufo-Addo government that it had inherited unnecessary excess power generation capacity from the Mahama government as untrue.
“The baseless and unfounded allegations by the NPP Government that, Ghana has excess electricity generation capacity, which the country does not need, leading to the payment of about GHC 17 billion in excess capacity bills, has been displaced with available facts as contained in the recently released 2022 electricity supply plan for Ghana,” the Minority stated.
“Sadly, these contrived and concocted narratives led by no less a person than the Vice President, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia against the person of former President Mahama was therefore as needless as they are mischievous and propaganda-laden.”
The 2022 publication authored by a technical team known as “The Power Planning Technical Committee (PPTC)” inaugurated in 2020 by the Minister of Energy makes interesting conclusions, including an astonishing revelation that the Nation’s existing generating capacity will not be adequate to serve the projected demand.
The excess capacity debate stems from a claim by the Akufo-Addo government that the Mahama government had unnecessarily negotiated in place a deal with various power producers to generate power that when put together are in excess of what the country needed.
And because the country does not need the excess power that it is forced to take per the deals, it must pay for excess power that it cannot put to use.
Interestingly, despite these arguments by the government, there are many parts in Ghana which do not have electricity because they are not yet on the national electricity grid.
The 2022 Electricity Supply Plan which was commissioned by the government clearly points out that Ghana’s generation capacity is low and that the country will need to shore up its capacity to avoid power crises.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director of IES, Nana Amoasi VII, has said the country urgently needs to add to its power generation capacity in order to avoid power crises in the foreseeable future.
Nana made this known in an interview with Accra-based JoyNews.
“The existing generation capacity we have is less than 4,500 megawatts and going forward, demand will increase yet installed capacity as we see will be the same until it is upped with some form of urgency”, he warned.
The warning is coming in the wake of a report by a technical team commissioned by the government “The Power Planning Technical Committee (PPTC)” said the country’s generation capacity needs to be boosted.