Ranking Member on the Energy Committee of Parliament, John Jinapor, has revealed that even before the looming shutdown of three power plants by Independent Power Producers (IPPs) next week, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is already shedding a significant amount of load.
Mr Jinapor disclosed that if the government fails to address the growing debt crisis in the energy sector, ECG could be forced to shed over 700 megawatts of power, a situation he describes as potentially disastrous for the nation.
“I can tell you on authority that even before the IPPs shut down their plants, there was load shedding ongoing. There was load shedding a day before yesterday, there was load shedding yesterday, and today, based on the briefing I have had, there would be load shedding,” he said in an interview with JoyNews.
He therefore called for immediate negotiations with the IPPs to avert their planned shutdowns.
The Chamber of Independent Power Producers Ghana on Tuesday, November 19 hinted that three of its members are likely to shut down due to debts owed them.
According to the Chief Executive of IPPG, Dr. Elikplim Apetorgbor, the government has failed to honour its promises to pay the $259 million debt owed by ECG.
If this happens, it will bring to four, the number of IPPs that would have shut down since Sunon-Asogli is already down.
According to Mr Jinapor, if the issue is not resolved, it will be an albatross on the next government’s neck.
Also, the Executive Director of the Institute for Energy Security, Nana Amoasi, says there is a possibility of heightened outages.
He claimed that the government is currently importing power from neighbouring Cote D’Ivoire to complement the country’s capacity.
He questioned why the government is not incentivizing the power plants to come onstream to keep on producing power.
“Since the last two months, the government has made attempts and has been importing power from Cote D’Ivoire in critical times. If you are comfortable importing and probably paying later for it, why aren’t you willing to get these other plants online by giving them something and engaging them?” he asked.
Source: Myjoyonline.com