Do not negate renewable energy too

The West African Gas Pipeline, the first regional natural gas transmission system in Black Africa, has completed the repair works that stalled the supply of gas for well over ten months to Ghana, Benin and Togo.

Consequently, gas is expected to flow through the pipeline from Nigeria to the afore-mentioned destinations. In August last year, activities of pirates -- who tried to board an oil tanker in an attempt to elude the pursuing Togolese Navy -- severely damaged the pipeline with their anchor.

This caused major power supply problems in the affected countries, and the Volta River Authority (VRA) and Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) announced a load-shedding exercise that disrupted a lot of economic activities as well as causing much discomfiture to consumers of electricity as a whole.

The Chief Executive Officer of the VRA, Mr. Kweku Awortwi, made the disclosure last week during the meet-the-press series. This must bring a lot of relief to Ghanaians after an excruciating load-shedding exercise that began in August 2012.

The sector Minister of Energy, Mr. Buah, also took his turn and assured the nation that the country is on course with its electricity generation roadmap and has thus brought on-stream 267 megawatts of additional installed capacity by the close of May this year.

He told Ghanaians that next year 342 megawatts will be added with the completion of the 220-megawatt Kpone thermal power plant; the 110 megawatt Takoradi Two expansion project; and a 12 megawatt solar plant.

However, what is of interest to this Paper is his emphasis that the promotion of renewable energy is also on course. He announced that the regulator, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), has completed work on the feed-in-tariffs and will soon gazette and publish feed-in-tariffs for solar, wind, biomass, waste-to-energy and hydro that will be allowed onto the regulated market.

This is important because come November, the second edition of the West African Clean Energy and Environment Exhibition and Conference (WACEE ’13) will be held in Accra.

WACEE ’12 stepped into the gap to link decision-makers and key players in renewable Energy, and created successful business opportunities for Ghanaian and foreign institutions and companies.

Hence, as the PURC is completing its work on the feed-in-tariff system for renewable, it presents good prospects for investors in the provision of independent power to come on-stream and assist in the delivery of clean energy that is both cost-effective and friendly to the environment.

Now, not only profit margins occupy the minds of entrepreneurs since sustainable business practices have come along to complement and promote new resource-efficient ways of doing business.

It would therefore be an added asset to have the PURC gazette and publish the feed-in tariffs.