Load shedding won’t cease in 2013 - ACEP

Contrary to assertions made by the President that load shedding will be a thing of the past in 2013, the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has stated that the load shedding situation in Ghana will not end any time soon unless the country opens up other options of energy generation like waste.

According to ACEP, the current power crises exposes the fragility of our current power sector and the fact that Ghana is yet to overcome the fundamental problems that give rise to this recurrent power deficits.

Addressing the media on the challenges facing Ghana’s power sector, the Executive Director of the ACEP, Mohammed Amin Adam mentioned that the allusion that the load shedding will be over next year is not true.

He said: “What we are simply saying is that the allusion that the load shedding will be over next year is not true. By our analysis, we think that load shedding will be with us for some time. Based on the factors that we considered we think that generation expansion is not the solution and government seem to be putting all emphasis on expanding generation capacity.’’

Mr. Adam explained that “If you have generation capacity and the energy source are not reliable then you have problems. So far, we think that water levels in Akosombo may not allow us to have generation reliability. Anytime you have water levels going beyond the minimum level then you have power crises but the power crisis we are experiencing this year is as a result of shortage of gas, not of water.’’

‘’And even with the gas supply we also have reliability problem, Nigeria is not supplying according to contract, they are supplying a daily minimum of about Hundred and Five million standard cubic feet and the current demand for power generation in Ghana is about 200 million standard cubic feet ‘’, he added.

According to him, ‘’even if Asogli is producing fully the 200 megawatts of power you will still have a shortage of about 400-500 megawatts of power shortage. And that tells us that load shedding will not go away from Ghana soon. Also some people think that Ghana jubilee gas will come in to solve the problem, we think no, the jubilee gas is going to produce about 100 million standard cubic feet a day, if you add that to what Nigeria is producing you still will not be able to reach the 300 million standard cubic feet that we need by 2015to be able to fire the additional generating plants that we are bringing on stream.’’

Mr. Adam lamented that the country is also being confronted with transmission and distribution difficulties saying, “our transmission lost is about 5% higher done industry standard of 3% and distribution lost is about 20%. And so even if you produce the power, how to deliver the power to consumers is another problem. Unless we invest in expanding the transmission system because it is currently congested, that is why we’ve experienced total blackout on two occasions in this country."