Minister for Energy John Peter Amewu has called on Ghanaians to retain the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the upcoming polls in order to continue to enjoy uninterrupted power supply. According to him, the current administration has put in place a lot of measures to address the country’s energy sector crisis popularly known as “dumsor” and hence, it mandate should be extended so as to completely roll out the transformation of the sector.
Addressing the eighth edition of the Nation Building Updates on Thursday November 5, 2020 under the theme “Keeping the Lights on, Powering Our Growth”, the Minister said the NPP government has made significant gains in the energy sector and will continue to roll out measures to revamp the sector if given a second term.
“We can only secure the future when the planners, the doers, the framers and the designers are allowed to continue what they are doing. In any design that the designer is not part of construction, there is a failure. In any design system that the framers and those who bring together how the architecture will look like, if those people are taken out, they will always be a failure.
“Any design who doesn’t not take into consideration the input of those who started it, there will always be a failure. And so the ideas and rational that has made it possible that we are today witnessing affordable and uninterrupted supply of power is because there are some competent framers and designers and it is only prudent that in securing the future, we allow those competent people to stay in power,” he said.
According to the Minister, through the energy sector crisis, the country lost up to 2 percent of its Gross Domestic Products (GDP) between 2014 to 2016.
He said though the NDC administration tried to resolve the crisis by entering into take or pay agreements with Independent Power Producers (IPPs), the arrangement even sunk the country into more debts.
However, Mr. Amewu noted that the current administration has been able to put in place series of measures to address this concern. One of such measure he said is the renegotiation of the power purchase agreements to 40% of the contracted take or pay agreement reducing significantly the capacity charges that the country pays annually.
Additionally, he said, the improvement in the country’s energy sector is as a result of the creation of synergy between partner state institutions like the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), Volta River Authority (VRA), Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and Ghana National Gas Company Limited (Ghana Gas).
Recounting the significant reduction in energy tariffs, the Minister noted that it was made possible due to the competent management of the sector. He bemoaned the continuous increment in cost of power under the erstwhile Mahama administration though the country was going through erratic power supply.
Touching on measures government is putting in place to revamp the sector, the Minister hinted the gradual shift to renewable energy through the addition of solar power to the country’s grid in the long term.
He cited the 6.5 megawatts Lawra solar power plant commissioned by President Akufo-Addo in October as an example of such projects with many of such projects in the offing.
