A member of Parliament’s Mines and Energy Committee, Edawrd Abambire Bawa, has slammed the Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, for using PR to steer the affairs of the ministry.
In his view, the energy sector minister’s self-delusion that the availability of power supply in the country will solely be determined by the timeliness of payment to the West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo) is not thinking outside the box of Ghana’s energy crisis.
Hon. Bawa indicated that this current government should not be mused about just the transportation of gas, which is a minute amount of the components that are utterly needed in ensuring the availability of power supply in the country.
Reacting to the Energy Minister’s press briefing on last Thursday, Mr. Bawa stated that the Energy Minister, Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh’s, inability to disclose the indebtedness of ECG to Ghanaian sector agencies (GRIDCo, VRA, and Gas), but only citing the indebtedness to WAPCo, is entirely an act of dishonesty.
The MP stressed that currently, in terms of total indebtedness in power that the country has consumed, Ghana is wallowing in debt close to some Gh¢15 billion, adding that WAPCo is simply “the one that picks the gas and brings it.”.
In clarifying the scope of issues that have hit the energy sector, Mr. Bawa reiterated that the second concern has to do with the energy capacity of the country.
He elaborated that, from the beginning of the year until date, Ghana’s dependable capacity is now 3,407 MW. Meanwhile, at peak, the country is consuming in the region of 3,561 MW.
The Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh:
“As of Wednesday, 8:55 p.m., we did not have enough power to give to Ghanaians. So, when you see that there are sections of the country going off between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m., it’s because from the beginning of the year up until now, we have had a power generation deficit, not only because of gas but just simply because we do not have enough power.”
Edward Bawa, speaking truth to the predicament of the energy sector, urged Dr. Opoku Prempeh to be candid and not paint a bizarre picture that seeks to conclude that the power outages in the country are borne out of frivolous reasons.
He argued that the NDC administration cautioned the government on the issue, but the latter moved on the tangent of excess capacity and hence refuted putting in punitive measures to ensure best-generation capacity.
“As I speak, our growth rate in terms of power consumption is so high—we are doing around 12% annually, and we do not have a corresponding addition in terms of that. That is why, for about eleven months now, we have had a deficit in terms of generation.”
“So, when you see your lights off in your area, it is not a localized one; it’s just that because of the lack of transparency of this government, they will not allow GRIDCo to publish a load-shedding plan for Ghanaians. The moment they do that, then their rhetoric, like what the minister is saying, cannot hold. So, they’ll bully GRIDCo not to do that, but currently, we have a huge problem.
Hon. Bawa dismissed the claims by the Energy Minister that he has handled the energy indebtedness better than the NDC under John Mahama.
He added that if the NPP government had continued with the power plan of the NDC to ensure that all Ghanaians have equal access to electricity by 2020 and swiftly completed the upgrade of what the previous government commenced to enable power export and make electricity available to VALCo to run at full capacity, the issue of excess capacity would not linger on the lips of Ghanaians.
