Ghana to sell some 'dumsor' plants

The Government of Ghana is planning to sell some of the power plants it procured to deal with the erratic power supply (dumsor) because they are not needed at the moment, Ismael Ejekumhene, Chairman of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) Technical Committee, has revealed.

According to him, the state is struggling to find use for some of these plants because the country has been able to generate enough power for both domestic and commercial consumption.

Dispelling claims by the Minority that the recent reduction in electricity tariffs by the PURC will result in erratic power supply, Mr Ejekumhene said Ghana at the moment has installed capacity of 5000MW, more than the 2,200MW needed by the country.

The PURC which announced the reduction early this month, said residential customers will now enjoy 17.5% reduction, whilst non-residential customers will enjoy 30% reduction.

The mines are also entitled to 10% reduction, with special load tariff customers also enjoying 25% reduction.

But the Minority spokesperson on Energy, Adam Mutawakilu, has said Ghanaians are likely to experience erratic power supply and general operational challenges due to the price reduction.

“In their statement, they indicated that the capacity for AMERI has been reduced but when you asked them whether they had renegotiated the AMERI agreement, they wouldn’t respond; they said transmission losses had been reduced from four percent to 3.8 percent and when you asked how they did that they won’t respond,” Mutawakilu told Joy FM.

But responding to this claim on Ghana Yensom hosted by Chief Jerry Forson on Accra100.5FM on Friday March 16, Mr Ejekumhene who is also the Executive Director for the Kumasi Institute of Technology & Environment (KITE), said: “Let us ask ourselves what caused the dumsor. The dumsor was because of generational problems, our generational capacity did not meet the demands of consumers hence the rationing.

“But as we speak, today we are even struggling to find use for some of the plants because installed capacity is over 5000MW. Current peak demand is around 2200mw, this is more than 50 per cent reserved margin. We have signed several contracts on how to dispatch some of the plants that we don’t need at the moment.

“And so what will be the cause of dumsor again? Now we have enough capacity and we are even struggling to figure out what to do with some of them.”