It is shocking that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is promising to expand generation capacity as far as power is concerned because Ghana at the moment has excess capacity in the region of 2000MW which is not being used, yet being paid for, a Deputy Minister of Energy, Mohammed Amin Adam, has said.
He explained that the NDC signed several power purchasing contracts which has resulted in the country having to pay for power that is not being used.
Therefore, to turn around to promise an expansion in the generation capacity ahead of this year’s elections is surprising, he said.
“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 lawmaker for Bongo Constituency, said the comments were disingenuous.
He said: “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 iuse that to make your analyses already you have started from wrong place.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana