Energy Consultant, Dr Yussif Sulemana, has suggested to policymakers to engage Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to find a lasting solution to the imminent power crisis.
His call follows a directive by the Chamber of Independent Power Producers to its members to cut supply to the national grid from July 1.
Members of the Chamber include Sunon Asogli, Cenpower, Karpowership, AKSA, Twin City Energy and CENIT.
During an interview on Eyewitness News with Selorm Adonoo, Dr Sulemana expressed fear that the actions of the IPPs will adversely affect businesses if they embark on their threat.
“If people of such nature are threatening to take your power from your national grid, you have every cause to worry. If they should stay on course and go by their threat, we are going to have serious problems, as in dumsor. I think nobody wants to go back to such an era. We all know what the dumsor era came with.
“When it happens, definitely businesses are going to be affected, SMEs, domestic holders, industry are all going to be affected. I just want to urge policymakers to engage these IPPs in good faith, so that an amicable solution will be reached, so that the IPPs will not take power from the national grid. If they do that, the situation is going to be dire. Government should negotiate in good faith,” the Energy Consultant opined.
He emphasized that dealing with the IPPs is not negotiable and further suggested to the government to meet them halfway.
“Dealing with IPPs now is non-negotiable, and we cannot joke with, so I want to urge the government to see to whatever the problems are, come together with the IPPs and even meet them halfway. From the time they [IPPs] started talking about this issue, nothing concrete has come out of it,” Dr Yussif Sulemana said.
He said the picture being painted by government is different from that of the IPPs, describing the situation as “worrying”.