John Jinapor, Deputy Power Minister
The Volta River Authority (VRA) has warned of an impending gas shortage between February and March 2017.
In a letter dated 14th December, this year and endorsed by Ing. Kirk Koffi, Chief Executive of VRA to Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) Limited, the nation’s power producer disclosed: “Please find attached 2017 Gas Supply forecast from Ghana Gas Company Limited indicating a 15-day hiatus in the supply of gas in February 2017 and the whole of the month of March, 2017. From all indications, power from Ameri Energy will also not be available during that period. I shall be grateful if the System Control manager will meet with our plant managers to manage the power system during the above stated period to limit any supply challenges.”
The missive was copied to the Minister for Power.
VRA staff lament
It would also be recalled that Cephas Duse, the newly-elected chairman of VRA’s Senior Staff Association, recently mentioned on the sidelines of a biennial conference at Akuse in the Eastern Region that the power producer was owed to the tune of GH¢5 billion.
According to him, the debt situation was crippling VRA’s effort at becoming financially viable, revealing that the mining sector and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) were major debtors of VRA.
“As at September 2016, the independent power producers owe the VRA to the tune of GH¢5 billion.”
“What is happening with the VRA is that, we basically procure LCO gas and these are very expensive inputs; and they are dominated in foreign currency and when you buy these inputs it’s expected that when you sell to the public you get your money back. And when we don’t get the money back we turn to the bank to get loans to buy again and the cycle continues. We sell to them and they don’t pay,” he said.
Seth Terkper’s version
Meanwhile, outgoing Finance Minister Seth Terkper on Tuesday announced to business and financial journalists that government had made enough investments in the country’s energy sector that would ensure Ghana would not experience power outages under the new administration to be sworn in on January 7, 2017.
“This could be reversing the situation in some two to three years,” he noted, adding that government has had occasion to even stop the processing of independent power producer applications.
Jinapor’s assurance
John Jinapor, Deputy Minister for Power, sometime this year, also touted the Mahama-led administration’s provision for 600,000 barrels of light crude oil every 40 days to cater for Ghana’s energy needs.
News of the impending shortage therefore exposes the frailty of statements made by government on the power situation.
A four-year power crisis hit Ghana, which negatively affected industries and individuals.
Last year, government reached agreements to get the KARPOWER and Ameri plants to help contain the situation.
Analysts projections confirmed
Energy experts and industry watchers have projected the power crisis, known as Dumsor, could resurface in April next year.
After the December elections, The Africa Center for Energy Policy (ACEP) warned of a return to a crippling power crisis in 2017 on the basis of a worrying projection on weak fuel supply.
By Samuel Boadi
samuel10gh@yahoo.com