Bui Power Authority gets mandate to develop renewable energy

Parliament has enacted the Bui Power Authority (Amendment) Bill 2020 to empower the Bui Power Authority to develop renewable energy and other clean energy alternatives in the country.

Explaining the bill’s rationale to the House, Energy Minister John Peter Amewu said the government in 2007 established the Bui Power Authority through the enactment of the Bui Power Authority Act 2007 (Act 740), with the mandate to develop a hydroelectric power project on the Black Volta at Bui and any potential hydroelectric power site on the Black Volta River.

He said the authority has demonstrated enough institutional capacity in the area of renewable energy and successfully extended hydropower initiatives. However, its continuous investment and development of renewable energy has been flagged by auditors on several occasions as unlawful, since it falls outside the scope of its mandate.

The Ministry of Energy consequently presented the bill to address this anomaly and to give legal backing to the authority to execute and manage renewable energy projects and other clean energy alternatives.

Emmanuel Akwasi Gyamfi, Chairman of the Mines and Energy Committee, said the amended law will enable Bui Power, whose only off-taker currently is the Electricity Company of Ghana, to execute power purchase agreements directly with other utility companies or customers.

This will introduce competition and help increase Bui Power’s revenues, he added.

He said Bui Power has been tasked to establish the operating company for the country’s Nuclear Energy Programme (NEP) and to be a major a stakeholder of the Nuclear Power Ghana Limited (NPG) together with the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC).