The current government does not need independent power producers – Amewu meets Jinapor

Company News of Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Source: Michael Creg Afful

2018-11-28

The Ministry of Energy rejected the claims of former Deputy Minister of Power John Mahama Administration that the recent power outages resulted from the government's inability to repay its debt to independent power producers, including Ameri and Karpowership.

John Jinapor, who was speaking on Adom FM, based in Accra, said independent power producers were struggling to buy heavy fuel to power their plants because of the government's indebtedness.

At a press conference on Monday, Energy Minister John Peter Amewu dismissed Mr. Jinapor's claims as false.

Although he admitted that the government owed some of the independent power producers, he explained that these debts were debts inherited from previous governments and not debts incurred by the government administration. ; Akufo-Addo.

He added that the government of President Akufo-Addo had inherited a debt of about 2.8 billion US dollars related to the energy sector but had quickly explained that due to of the ESLA bond issue, issued by the government, some had been used to settle the debt, bringing the outstanding debt. about 2.3 billion US dollars.

"As I speak to you, the latest energy sector debt reconciliation has grown from $ 2.8 billion over the period to nearly $ 2.3 billion, so there is still a huge debt to settle, "said Amewu.

According to John Jinapor's claim, the state's electricity distribution, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), resulted in a loss of billions of dollars due to some inefficiencies. Mr. Amewu blamed the problems that are causing Ghanaians to lose revenue to the factors.

He mentioned current theft, more commonly known as illegal connection, transmission and distribution losses, losses due to the measurement system, inability of government agencies to pay for the energy consumed, as well as production losses, among the factors contributing to the losses suffered by ECG.

However, he said the government has taken steps to ensure that government agencies such as ministries, metropolises, municipalities, districts and departments are removed from the national grid and rely on solar energy. to prevent government agencies from consuming electricity without paying their bills.

Referring to what happened in the sector, which led to recent power outages, he explained that the blackouts were the result of fuel supply problems in the area.

"We had problems supplying fuel for production in the east.On November 22, gas in Nigeria stopped flowing because of the low pressure in the pipeline at Itoki.

Nigeria has been reliable over the last year, reaching 80mmscfd, a combination of the delay in the supply of heavy fuel oil for Karpower and the absence of gas from Nigeria has compromised the available production of around 800MW. These facilities included 450 MW Asogli, "he added.

Amewu said the problems that had led to the breakdowns had been resolved, ensuring that Ghana would no longer experience an electricity crisis because of the measures put in place by the government.