Ghanaians cannot afford high cost of over power generation – Kofi Bentil

Vice President for IMANI Ghana, Kofi Bentil says most Ghanaians would not be able to afford the possibility of paying more for electricity, should there be an issue of “over power” generation.

Admitting to the fact the country has a potential of generating excessive energy, he explained that Ghanaians would not be able to meet the heavy expenditure required to finance such a situation.

Mr Bentil disclosed in an interview that the country currently is not comfortable with its level of power generation adding that, citizens in some parts of the country in this age and time still have been deprived of electricity.

“There is instore capacity, in other words there is the potential to generate more energy than we need. The problem is that, the price of that is not what most people can afford. The issue is, do we even have all the energy we need which we can afford? I don’t think so. We have extended electricity supply to many places in the country, about 90% but not all people have it to use in their homes. It’s like the electricity pole is in front of your house, there’s power on it but there’s no power in your house.”

Going further, he blamed the country for burdening itself with too many high-priced power purchases which has called for the “soon to happen” excessive energy generation.

“We as a country have not done very well in terms of power purchasing agreements signed. We’ve saddled ourselves with too many power purchase agreements which we cannot afford because of that it seems like we have over generation,” he noted

He added that there is the need for the state to adopt solar power as a means of resolving the country’s imminent power load issues.

He reasons that it is only logical as a country to employ the solar means of providing electricity as it is less expensive as compared to thermal and other sources of power.

“This is where the solar and other renewable sources can come in because even though the initial cost may be high, with time you’ll realise that it pays for itself. It’s really not as expensive as the ones we get into; the thermal and other sources,” he indicated