The National Democratic Congress (NDC) while in office signed several Power Purchasing Agreements (PPAs) without recourse to competitive bidding processes, Deputy Minister of Energy in Charge of Petroleum Mohammed Amin Adam has said.
Dr Amin Adams, who is also the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Parliamentary Candidate for Karaga Constituency, said most of these agreements that the previous government signed were not needed because Ghana has 2000MW of excess generation capacity that is not being used, yet being paid for.
He was contributing to a discussion on the NDC’s promise to expand generation capacity in the event the party wins the elections.
The Deputy Energy Minister said this promise is surprising because Ghana does not need power due to the availability of the 2000MW that is not being used.
“I am still surprised that the NDC, our friends are making a new promise on expanding capacity. One of the major challenges in the energy sector now is the issue of excess capacity and so I was expecting that they will tell Ghanaians how they intend addressing the excess capacity, the problem which was created by them. They signed several Power Purchasing Agreements (PPAs).
“At the last count, 42 power purchase agreements that required different companies to put up power plant to generate power.
“These were done without recourse to competitive bidding processes. To the extent that significant amount of the PPAs have been executed and yet our country doesn’t need that amount of power.
“For example, the deposit that is available today, the total installed capacity that is available is about 5000MW and the peak demand in the country is around 2400MW and so you have almost 2000MW of generation capacity that is not needed. It is power that we just don’t need but power that we have to pay for,” he told Joy FM, Wednesday, September 16.
Responding to his comments, Mr Edward Bawa, the Member of Parliament for Bongo Constituency, said the comments were disingenuous.
“When you indicated that your installed generational capacity is 5000 and you say that what you really need in terms of your peak demands less than that, it is very disingenuous. Your installed capacity must not necessarily be the same as available capacity.
“I have always indicated that it has always been the song that the NPP are singing. If you go to the Energy Commission’s website and other things you will realise that the available capacity around 3000MW thereabout.
“If you already start by trying to give us figures that look so wide then you are talking about available peak demand that is almost about 50 per cent of the installed capacity and you use that to make your analyses already you have started from wrong place.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana