The body responsible for the drafting of the 2022 Electricity Supply Plan, Power Planning Technical Committee (PPTC) has debunked claims by Mr. John Jinapor, National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Yapei-Kusawgu that the prolonged and dreaded blackouts or power cuts popularly known as ‘dumsor’ is imminent.
It reiterated that there is no such risk of dumsor contrary to the assertions by the Ranking Member on Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament.
The Committee reacted to John Jinapor’s claim in a statement signed and issued last Friday by the Chairman of the Committee, Ing. Frank Otchere.
PPTC was set up by the Minister for Energy to, among others, develop planning reports for Ghana’s power system.
Dumsor
Reacting specifically to John Jinapor’s claim that “the existing generation capacities will not be adequate to serve the projected demand with 18% reserve margins for any of the planning years”, on which basis he predicted the imminent return of dumsor, the Committee explained that per the 2022 Electricity Plan (ESP), the country has total installed generation capacity of 5,265.1MW with dependable capacity standing at 4,706MW.
It pointed out that with a projected annual peak demand going up to 4,793MW in 2026, it is obvious that both the installed capacity and dependable capacity are in excess of peak demand, and therefore there cannot be imminent ‘dumsor’ as was portrayed.
According to the Committee, dumsor only occurs when the actual demand is higher than what the system is able to generate, explaining that the additional demand recommended in its report is only required to provide as extra capacity to serve as reserve.
Future generation needs
The committee also clarified that in recommending further generation capacity between 2023 and 2027 (a total of 822 MW), this only refers to a sensitivity analysis on capacity requirement in the event that the Bui Hydro Plant is able to run only on two units instead of three (3) during the peak period.
“This situation is rare, and was analysed only as a sensitivity scenario in the unlikely event of such a situation”, it explained.
Gas supply
The Committee also rebutted the claim by Mr. John Jinapor that the report negates the argument of Ghana having excess gas leading to capacity payments.
It said the recommendation of the ESP 2022 for arrangements to increase gas supply did not imply procuring new gas facilities.
Rather the statement said it was only alerting that demand is growing and therefore there was the need to make arrangements to increase volumes of gas supplied from the existing gas facilities.
The Committee reiterated that there was no imminent dumsor as has been alleged and further, that there was capacity available to increase gas supply for extra generation in Ghana.
“Accordingly, the issues quoted cannot be cited to discredit the assertion of excess capacity on the Ghana power system”, the Committee concluded.
Dumsor under Mahama
Ghanaians were subjected to about four years of excruciating dumsor under President John Dramani Mahama in which businesses were severely crippled.
In fact, various studies including that from the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) revealed that government lost in excess of $3 billion in addition to job losses during the energy crisis under the Mahama-led NDC administration.
