NDC lacks knowledge on Energy Development - Paul Apraku

The Member of Parliament for Dormaa East, Paul Apraku Twum Barimah has described the recent allegations made by the Minority in parliament on Dumsor and load shedding as false, and calculated to tarnish the image of the government.

Speaking in an interview with the media, the astute communication and energy specialist said there is no nationwide load shedding and that government has no intention of embarking on load shedding as falsely purported by the minority in a press conference led by John Jinapor.

“We are not in energy crises as claimed by the minority and the government has not planned any load shedding. What the minority is trying to do is to incite the general public against the government. They are doing everything they can to create tension and confusion between the public and government but I tell you, they will not succeed. They will fail in their ill-thought agenda."

He also regarded as false the claim by the minority that, political pressure has been brought to bear on the publishing of a load shedding timetable. The Dormaa East member of parliament thus called on the general public to disregard the false claim by the minority and support the government in its effort to transform the transmission lines and improve power supply.

He assured the general public that despite the inherent challenges in the transmission and distribution aspects of the power sector, systematic plans had been put in place by the government and its developmental partners such as the MCC, Siemens and the AFD to create stable power supply for the country.

Paul Twum Barimah rejected the claim by the minority that the current power challenges is due to political interference and explained that the NPP government is clean and transparent and the NDC is making such allegations to just score political points and equate it to what happened under the Mills- Mahama administration.

He said president Akufo-Addo is taking some significant steps to make the power transmission system more responsive to the growing demands all over, especially, at the high-density areas.

He indicated that government is really committed to ensuring system upgrade and introduction of Static Var Compensators (SVC) or Power Factor Corrections (PFC) at the substations to drastically reduce the transmission lines losses in a bid to control the voltage fluctuations.

He said government has also made some significant investment to purchase $15m Static Var Compensators to boost power supply. He noted that the move by government to transfer Ameri power to Kumasi to augment storage and supply proves its commitment to providing lasting solution to the Voltage control.

According to him, when the Ameri Plant transfer project is completed, it will pave way for other interested Independent Power Producers to use the opportunity to site generation plants in Ashanti region since there would be availability of gas supply to Ameri Plant through Nyinahin to Kumasi.

He indicated that the future of power transmission system looks quite bright under the Akufo-Addo led NPP government with transmission voltage level being upgraded to 330kV across the entire nation, and possible to move up to 400-500kV Ultra-High Voltage transmission in the near future, to ensure proper resilient reliable quality power supply.