Power Sector, My Greatest Challenge…No More Promises - Prez Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama has said the most disturbing area of governance that takes up most of his time and attention as president is the power sector. According to him, as close as the country was towards solving the problem of ‘dumsor’, there was still a gap even though there have been some major improvements with supply. He was answering a question on his numerous failed promises to end the energy crisis. Speaking at his Annual Flagstaff Meet The Press on Tuesday, the president said rather lightheartedly that he had learnt not to make any predictions again on the energy crisis facing Ghana. He would prefer the “technical people” tell Ghanaians when a panacea will be found for the crisis. “I believe that in the next eh!, let me not predict, in the next short while, we will be able to overcome the problem of load shedding. I have learnt to leave it to the technical people to talk about and they are having a major press briefing tomorrow [Wednesday]," he stopped shy of promising. President Mahama indicated that the press briefing by the technical people will touch on a scheduled routine maintenance that Atuabo Gas Plant is set to undergo, adding that gas will stop flowing for them to re-tune the plants. “…they (technical people) will inform Ghanaians where we are currently in respect of resolving the power crisis permanently…We now as a result of the work we did have sufficient generation, the major problem now will be to provide the fuel and so we need to resolve the issues to do with the West Africa Gas Pipeline,” he said. He noted that his government is doing all it could to permanently stop the load shedding management which have been a problem in this country for years but have always been managed and not solved totally. “We need to forecast on our demand for power generation to prevent future misfortunes as we have today, and that is my target as a president,” he indicated. He however advised Ghanaians especially, ministries to pay their electricity bills to help government solve the energy crises facing the country.

Source: Elizabeth Semiheva/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana

Worsening DUMSOR: Who Is Telling The Truth?.... As Ghana Gas Accuses Power Ministry Of Lying.

CEO of Ghana Gas Company, George Sipa Yankey (L) and Minister for Power, Dr Kwabena Donkor Ghana National Gas Company Limited (Ghana Gas) has slammed attempts by the Ministry of Power to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians regarding reasons adduced by the latter for the current intensified load-shedding in the country. Many areas especially in Accra in the last two weeks have been experiencing 12 hours of power on and 24 hours of no power with some going off for 48 hours. Most local and foreign businesses, grappling with problems associated with the intermittent supply of electricity for several months, have decried the current situation. On Tuesday, the Power Ministry told Ghanaians that the worsening energy situation in the country was as a result of a shutdown of Ghana Gas at Atuabo. A statement signed by the head of Public Affairs at the Ministry of Power, Mr Kweku Sersah-Johnson, on the current increase in the quantum of load shedding in the country, said the shutdown is to enable the African Middle East Investment (AMERI) Power plant, which is to generate additional 250 MW of power when fully commissioned to be connected onto the gas supply system of Ghana Gas. The Power Ministry's statement, comes on the heels of an earlier statement from the Electricity Company of Ghana  indicating that 530MW load is going to be shed today. “ECG is to undertake 530MW load relief between 18:00hrs and 06:00hrs due to insufficient power generation.” According to the Ministry of Power, engineers of both the Ghana Gas and AMERI were working round clock to complete the connection of the gas line and to ameliorate the recent further decline in power supply in the country and appealed to the public to bear with the situation, “as the gas line connection is expected to be completed soon”. But Ghana Gas in a response has refuted the claims saying "the assertion that the current increase in load shedding in the country has come about as a result of the shut down of Ghana National Gas Company limited (Ghana Gas) is incorrect." The company says it has nothing to do with the situation as claimed by the Power ministry in its statement explaining why ECG is shedding more load. Ghana Gas said it finds the Power Ministry's explanation of the issue "disingenuous". Below is the full Ghana Gas statement. GHANA GAS CLARIFIES INTERRUPTION OF GAS SUPPLY FROM ATUABO The Ghana National Gas Company Limited (Ghana Gas) wishes to correct an erroneous impression carrried in a press statement issued by the Ministry of Power today, 24th November, 2015, through its Head, Public Affairs, Mr Kweku Sersah-Johnson. We wish to state the following: 1. That the assertion that the current increase in load shedding in the country “has come about as a result of a shutdown of Ghana National Gas Company Limited (Ghana Gas)” is incorrect. 2. That Ghana Gas has no contract regarding the ongoing installation works by the African Middle East Investment (AMERI) power plant being installed at the Aboadze power enclave. However, because of the experience gained in pipelines construction over the past four years, Ghana Gas engineers are only assisting the VRA to connect the AMERI plant to its power systems. The following are the facts. On 12th November, 2015, Ghana Gas receieved a written request from the Volta River Authority, an agency under the Ministry of Power, to shut-down its processsing and supply of lean gas to enable it (VRA) to connect the AMERI Plant to its “existing gas pipeline in the week of November 23-27, 2015.” Consequently, Ghana Gas honoured the request and shut down Atuabo yesterday, 23rd November, 2015 to enable the VRA and the sector Ministry to tie the AMERI Plant onto the VRA facilitities. The shutdown of the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant was, therefore, at the instance of the VRA, which claimed that it had made adequate arrangement for light crude oil to power its Aboadze Plant and avoid a shortfall in energy generation. Ghana Gas, therefore, find the attempt by the Ministry of Power on this matter unhelpful. For the records, Ghana Gas does not have any challenege, whatsoever, with the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant. The Plant has been operational since Ghana’s first indigenous natural gas made its way from the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah, through the 60-kilometre journey, to safely to land. Today, 24th November, 2015 marks exactly a year since Ghana Gas delivered the first lean gas to the VRA. There has been no safety incidents recorded at the plant or unplanned outage within the same period. ALFRED OGBAMEY CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana