Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has criticized government’s decision to rent some power barges from Karpower of Turkey and generating units from Dubai.
“There are major problems that need to be resolved and the government is not coming clear on this,” he hinted.
It makes no economic sense to rent the plants for $700 million for five years before taking ownership when we could have bought them outright for $220 million, Dr Adam added.
The Executive Director called on Government to institute emergency measures to address the short-term challenges.
He said government must fast-track negotiations for the interconnection project between Atuabo Gas Pipeline and the West Africa Gas Pipeline to reverse stranded gas from Takoradi to Tema for use by the power plants.
President Mahama promised in 2012 to end the energy crisis in the country after 100 days of assuming office, a pledge he has woefully failed to honour.
The African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), an energy policy think-tank, indicated that the energy crisis in Ghana will not end soon.
“Our energy crisis will not end. It will be minimized, I mean, we need to be realistic about this. It will be better for President John Mahama to tell Ghanaians the truth than give them expectations he won’t be able to meet.”
Dr. Amin Adam disclosed this during a media briefing on Monday in Accra, in reaction to pledges made by President Mahama in his recent State of Nation Address.
Delivering the State of the Nation Address in Parliament last Thursday, President Mahama said he would fix the nation’s energy problem that has led to the collapse of businesses and negatively affected Ghanaians.
According to him, past governments have managed the energy crisis but he (Mahama) plans to end it once and for all.
“I do not intend to manage the situation. I intend to fix it. I, John Dramani Mahama, will fix the energy situation,” he claimed.
Dr. Amin Adam indicated that it’s impossible for the President to bring an end to the power crisis.
“A total of 3,800MW of additional generation capacity is being rolled out over a five-year period. This will be unprecedented given that this capacity will be more than all our installed capacity of our country built over 50 years from the era Dr. Kwame Nkrumah to date – 2846MW),” he said.
Dr. Amin Adam could not fathom where government would obtain an extra gas supply of 500mmscfd to fuel the plants to generate 3,800MW.
Source: GhanaWeb
