Ghana needs adequate energy reserve margin to forestall challenge - Expert

Energy expert Godfred Mensah has emphasized the importance for Ghana to have adequate generation reserve capacity of at least 20 percent of its peak demand on a yearly basis to forestall the country’s energy challenge.

Ing. Mensah, who is a Power System Planning and Protection Expert at the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), attributed the current energy challenge to a shortfall in generation capacity compared to the growing demand of the country.

A reserve margin is a measure of the amount of electricity imports and in-state generation capacity available over average peak demand conditions.

Ing. Mensah indicated that the country had an installed electricity capacity of 2936 megawatts as at December 2014. A peak demand of 1970.9 megawatts on the other hand was recorded in November 2014.

From the above figures, it was expected that there would be spare generation capacity of 965.1 MW to meet the country’s demand. However, due to several challenges such as inadequate gas supply and maintenance (planned and breakdown) works carried out on some thermal plants, available generation capacity in the country started dwindling.

Pressure was therefore put on the hydro-generation plants at Akosombo, Kpong and Bui to meet the growing demand. This situation, coupled with the poor rainfall patterns across the country, led to dwindling water levels in the dams. The net effect was that the country’s available generation capacity dropped to 1736 megawatts as of December 2014, leading to a power deficit in the country.

Since then, Ghana’s power deficit has led to a load shedding of between 400 and 700 megawatts of power on a daily basis.

Ing. Mensah believes that with country’s historical power demand growth rate of between 10 and 15 percent year-on-year, there will be the urgent need to increase the national generation capacities by at least the same percentage per annum in order to meet the growing power requirements in Ghana.

“We expect adequate reserve margin of at least 20 percent of the total installed generation capacity on a yearly basis for reliable operation, such that if a problem is encountered at any of the plants, then we can fall back on the reserve. However, there isn’t enough reserve margin in the country, so when a problem is encountered there is no other option than to shut down and work on that plant, which will result in a power deficiency,” he said.

According to the power system expert, all Ghanaians are to play their role in supporting the government to deliver its promise of 5000 megawatts of power generation capacity in the country by 2016.

Public and state institutions which operate mainly during the day should be encouraged to adopt solar PV plants to meet their daily power consumption needs. Individual households and real estate houses should also consider renewable energy sources as a means of addressing the shortfall in their power supply.

Ing. Mensah also added that domestic, commercial and industrial consumers should adopt energy efficient and sustainable practices at home and in the workplace. He said countries like Japan had a power surplus but still encouraged their citizens to manage their energy usage in their offices and homes.

He said consumers could make some small changes to their daily energy usage habits to help address the energy shortage. He also suggested that the Ghana Education Service could consider introducing an energy efficiency program as part of their academic curriculum in basic schools in the country.

Since small challenges in any section of the national power supply chain (that is, generation, transmission and distribution) could lead to a load shedding situation in the country, Ing. Mensah is proposing a non-partisan national power system planning think tank.

His expectation is for the group to be empowered by the state to review all generation, transmission and distribution master plans of the state-owned electric utility companies on a yearly basis.

"This would ensure that plans earmarked for the security of power supply in the country are implemented by successive governments," he said.

Akua Nyame-Mensah, Managing Director of leading real estate portal Lamudi Ghana, said: “Managing demand can have a huge impact on the amount of energy available for the country. Our partner real estate agents and developers speak constantly about the cost of generators and the ability to keep up with fuel and maintenance costs. Having an understanding of the amount of energy used could change the way we consume energy.

“With smart meters and education, people can see for themselves how much they consume and stop wasting energy through small habits like leaving gadgets plugged into electrical outlets.”