Energy Minister John Peter Amewu has noted that the good investment in the energy sector made by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo brought an end to the erratic power supply Ghanaians witnessed during the four years of the Mahama administration.
He explained that President Akufo-Addo made the right choices with respect to human capital and other investment opportunities in the energy sector to tackle the canker.
These investments resulted in cheap uninterrupted power supply to homes and industry, he added.
“Placing competent people at the right place to deliver by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is what has solved the dumsor,” he said while speaking during the Nation Building Updates series at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences on Thursday, November 5.
Mr. Amewu further noted that the decision by the previous Mahama administration to station the Karpower Plant in Tema to be receiving gas from Takoradi was bad.
He said such a decision only resulted in unnecessary costs to the nation.
He said the Akufo-Addo administration took a prudent decision to relocate the plant to Takoradi which is closer to the gas in order to cut the necessary cost to the country.
“I don’t understand why the plant was distanced away from the gas. What it means is that if the gas has to travel from Takoradi to wherever you put this power plant, you will still have to pay for transportation for the gas,” he said.
“The gas moving from Takoradi to Tema will have to pass through a pipeline and the owner of that pipeline will have to charge you.
“We realized that the continuous placement of Kar Power in Tema was adding more cost to our tariffs. What we did was to move Kar Power from Tema to Takoradi with the assistance and support of the GNPC.
“This was one of the main reasons why our tariffs in 2017 could not see any increment as we saw in the past.
“By the completion of this movement by 2018/2019 we have tremendously reduced the tariffs to our consumers.”