Dumsor looms as IPPs threaten to cut power supply from national grid by June 30

The Independent Power Producers, Distributors and Bulk Consumers have threatened to cut power supply from the national grid at the end of June this year should government fail to settle its debt.

The government is said to owe the Independent Power Producers an amount of $1.630 billion as of April 2023. The IPPs consist of Twin City Energy, AKSA, Karpowership, Sunon Asogli, CenPower and Cenit.

A report by Joy Business indicates that the move could result in a significant power shortfall due to IPPs having a controlling stake of over 65 per cent of the available thermal power generation in Ghana.

The portal further noted that the IPPs and DBCs would, on Monday, May 29, 2023, write to the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, about the development.

Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber of IPPs, Elikplim Kwabla Apetorgbor speaking in an interview with Reuters, confirmed that the government’s plan to restructure the debts owed to power producers and distributors had been “corporately and individually rejected”.

He further said that power producers and distributors were unwilling to make concessions adding that they were almost on the verge of switching off their plants which could result in significant power cuts, affecting the national power grid.

Meanwhile, Ghana plans to cut about $10.5 billion in interest payments on its external debt in three years as part of efforts to undertake a successful bailout programme from the IMF.

A recently released IMF Staff report on Ghana revealed that there would be a renegotiation of contracts with the IPPs that are expected to further reduce costs.

“Beyond 2023, the programmes baseline projections conservatively assume that the sector shortfall will be gradually reduced to reach 1.7 per cent of Gross Domestic Product in 2026 (assuming modest tariff adjustments and a slight improvement in grid/recovery losses),” portions of the report read.

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