Today in History: 'Dumsor' is never coming back – Energy Ministry debunks claims

The Minister of Energy, Matthew Opoku Prempeh, assured Ghanaians that there would be no power cuts in the country's history ever again.

He said, “In line with our projected demand and the prudent management of the Energy sector, the Ministry of Energy is confident that there is no way that this country will go back to the dark days of ‘dumsor’."

“The claim by Dr. Kwabena Donkor that the NPP government has not added 'significantly' to the energy generation capacity cannot be supported by the available facts. Government is of the view that there must be prudent addition to the generation capacity in order not to get the country into over-capacity and its associated issues, and that the addition must be premised on projected demand,” the ministry added.

Read the full story originally published on April 7, 2022, by GhanaWeb

The Ministry of Energy has refuted claims of an imminent power crisis in the country, also known as 'Dumsor'.

This comes after a former Minister of Energy under the John Mahama adminstration, Dr. Kwabena Donkor suggested that a power crisis was imminent if urgent steps are not taken.

He alluded to an “insignificant addition to our generation capacity” as a reason for the purported power crisis.

But a statement issued by the ministry and sighted by GhanaWeb rejecting the claims stated, “In line with our projected demand and the prudent management of the Energy sector, the Ministry of Energy is confident that there is no way that this country will go back to the dark days of ‘dumsor’."

“The claim by Dr. Kwabena Donkor that the NPP government has not added 'significantly' to the energy generation capacity cannot be supported by the available facts. Government is of the view that there must be prudent addition to the generation capacity in order not to get the country into over-capacity and its associated issues, and that the addition must be premised on projected demand,” the ministry added.

Meanwhile, Kwasi Obeng-Fosu, Public Relations Officer of the ministry stressed, "As we speak, the total generation capacity added by this government is 421MW. This brings Ghana's total installed capacity to 5358.50MW, against the backdrop of the current peak demand of 3,469MW which was recorded on March 18, 2022. So we are managing the situation better.

Further touching on issues in the energy sector, the Energy Ministry PRO pointed out that Ghana as a nation must take prudent steps to avoid unnecessary take-or-pay contracts that are draining the nation's coffers all in the name of adding on to our generation mix.

He also acknowledged that due to minor works, faults, and natural occurrences, certain parts of the nation are facing intermittent outages.

The Energy Ministry PRO used the opportunity to assure citizens that ECG and GRIDCo are up to the task and fixing these issues to enable everyone to enjoy stable and reliable power for both domestic and industrial use.