Ghana to increase power supply by 2015
The Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, has stated that Ghana will increase power generation to ensure reliable power supply and become a net exporter of power in the West African sub-region by 2015.
He said Ghana had comparative advantage over its neighbouring countries and indicated that the country would explore other sources of energy, such as solar and biomass, to increase power generation.
Mr Mahama was speaking at a power summit on the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Compact Two in Accra yesterday.
The summit was attended by attended by regulators, operators and consumers and was on the theme, “Powering Ghana for Accelerated Development”.
The MCA Compact Two is to fund power generation and transmission to ensure reliable power supply in the country.
The overall objective of the summit is to create a platform for participants to discuss and make inputs into the concept paper for the MCA II. The compact intervention is to accelerate economic growth and reduce poverty through increased private sector investment in the Ghanaian power sector.
Ghana’s compact II will directly support the energy sector’s strategic objectives to achieve power supply sufficiency including exports to neighboring countries by 2015. It also aims to supply power for new oil and gas based industries.
Opening the summit, the Vice-President noted that the country’s energy demand was increasing, a situation which required adequate funding to improve infrastructure, and, therefore, thanked the US government for deciding to support Ghana under the MCA II and indicated that the expected increased power generation would create wealth and reduce poverty.
Mr Mahama said the government had already begun power sector reforms with the establishment of infrastructure to increase power generation. “Investing in power, making it reliable and improving access are the ways to go,” he stressed.
He expressed the hope that MCA II’s support would improve the transmission system and regulation and promote private sector participation in the power sector.
The Millennium Development Authority is also looking for innovative approaches to implement recommendations of the power summit.
Nonetheless, the Bui Power Authority is due to commission the first unit of the Bui hydroelectric dam early next year at production capacity of 113 Megawatts.
Deputy Minister of Energy, Haruna Fuseini indicated that $1.7 billion was required to meet the country's quest for universal access to electricity supply, and indicated that the government had received $966.55 million from bilateral and multilateral institutions in that regard.
Alhaji Fuseini said there was a shortfall of $729 million, for which reason support from the MCA Compact II would be helpful.
The other part of the 400 Megawatt Bui dam is expected to be completed by 2013. Other interventions aimed at improving the power supply situation include the commissioning of the Takoradi thermal plant, improvement of system reliability, reduction of system losses and Implementation of Transmission Improvement Projects.
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