The Akosombo dam might be shut down by April to forestall a total breakdown if the current power consumption rate continues, an official of the Volta River Authority (VRA) warned today. Mr. Robert K. Johnson, Manager, Corporate Information of the VRA, said, despite its adverse effects on the economy, the current power rationing exercise is still detrimental to the Akosombo hydro-electric plant. Mr. Johnson said in an interview that the VRA has informed the government of the necessity to close down the dam down by April this year if the rains do not fall in the catchment areas.He said much sacrifice had been made to provide expensive power for domestic consumption at very cheap rates "and now we are paying the price of those sacrifices". He did not say what was being done to prevent the closure but stated that the VRA would welcome popular suggestions for further load shedding to save the power plant. Mr. Johnson said that currently, power imported from Cote d'Ivoire is at an average of 25 mega watts instead of the 200 mega watts import contract constituting 30 per cent of Ghana's domestic requirement. This low level of power imported, coupled with our inability to produce the 70 per cent locally and the ill attitude of Ghanaians to power conservation, has led to the usually abrupt outages in many areas. Mr. Johnson said the bridge in communication with Abidjan on what amount of power they send on particular days, makes it difficult for the VRA to implement the 24 hours-every-other-day rationing schedule and to inform the public to take due preventive measures. He said areas experiencing abrupt outages would continue to experience that situation until the on-going test of the Takoradi thermal plant is completed and the problem facing Abidjan is solved to necessitate maximum import level. Mr. Johnson corrected the notion that Ghana exports power to Togo and Benin, saying, "VRA does not export power to these countries. We only use our facilities to wheel power imported by the two countries from Abidjan with their own resources". Togo and Benin, he added, only pay for using VRA facilities to channel power from the exporter. Mr. Kwamena Longdon, Public Relations Officer of the Electricity Company of Ghana [ECG], said that there is a special package of power supply from imported sources for the industries at higher cost. He said the new industrial schedule would cover four consecutive days of power supply after a day's cut, adding that for this package, a unit of power will cost 14.5 pence [about 80 cedis] instead of the original four pence [23 cedis]. These are expected to be some of the themes of the sector minister's national broadcast tonight,'' he added.
The Akosombo dam might be shut down by April to forestall a total breakdown if the current power consumption rate continues, an official of the Volta River Authority (VRA) warned today. Mr. Robert K. Johnson, Manager, Corporate Information of the VRA, said, despite its adverse effects on the economy, the current power rationing exercise is still detrimental to the Akosombo hydro-electric plant. Mr. Johnson said in an interview that the VRA has informed the government of the necessity to close down the dam down by April this year if the rains do not fall in the catchment areas.He said much sacrifice had been made to provide expensive power for domestic consumption at very cheap rates "and now we are paying the price of those sacrifices". He did not say what was being done to prevent the closure but stated that the VRA would welcome popular suggestions for further load shedding to save the power plant. Mr. Johnson said that currently, power imported from Cote d'Ivoire is at an average of 25 mega watts instead of the 200 mega watts import contract constituting 30 per cent of Ghana's domestic requirement. This low level of power imported, coupled with our inability to produce the 70 per cent locally and the ill attitude of Ghanaians to power conservation, has led to the usually abrupt outages in many areas. Mr. Johnson said the bridge in communication with Abidjan on what amount of power they send on particular days, makes it difficult for the VRA to implement the 24 hours-every-other-day rationing schedule and to inform the public to take due preventive measures. He said areas experiencing abrupt outages would continue to experience that situation until the on-going test of the Takoradi thermal plant is completed and the problem facing Abidjan is solved to necessitate maximum import level. Mr. Johnson corrected the notion that Ghana exports power to Togo and Benin, saying, "VRA does not export power to these countries. We only use our facilities to wheel power imported by the two countries from Abidjan with their own resources". Togo and Benin, he added, only pay for using VRA facilities to channel power from the exporter. Mr. Kwamena Longdon, Public Relations Officer of the Electricity Company of Ghana [ECG], said that there is a special package of power supply from imported sources for the industries at higher cost. He said the new industrial schedule would cover four consecutive days of power supply after a day's cut, adding that for this package, a unit of power will cost 14.5 pence [about 80 cedis] instead of the original four pence [23 cedis]. These are expected to be some of the themes of the sector minister's national broadcast tonight,'' he added. GES orders interdiction of two teachers for allegedly inserting a concoction into pupils' genitals.
