National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP), Edward Bawa, has charged the government to cause the publication of a load shedding schedule “as a matter of urgency.”
According to the Bongo legislator, this would allow Ghanaians to plan their lives in the wake of the recent erratic power supply, a situation the MP describes as “avoidable.”
In a statement Tuesday, the legislator blamed the unstable power supply on government’s inability to finance the fueling of power generators.
“Ghana’s power sector is confronted with severe financial threats notwithstanding the energy sector levy introduced by the previous administration and bequeathed to the present government.
“Indeed, the sector is currently experiencing an unprecedented financial crisis. The net sector arrears stands at about $4 billion. Of this indebtedness, a whopping US$1.5 Billion is owed to the private sector including IPPs.
“If nothing is done, electricity production will grind to a halt and deprive Ghanaians of a regular and adequate supply of power for domestic and commercial use. The current power outages are symptomatic of a bigger problem that will eventually plunge this country into the dreaded dumsor,” he wrote.
Mr Bawa also dismissed assertions that maintenance works on the West African Gas Pipeline are responsible for the outages as he claims the “West African Pipeline Company had communicated to all off-takers of Nigerian Gas including Ghana in April 2019 that, there was going to be a scheduled maintenance work February this year [2020].
“The reason for this communication is usually to give the various countries enough time to put in place contingency measures to forestall any challenges that may arise as a result of the curtailment of gas supply.
“Fortunately for Ghana, most of the thermal plants we have are dual-fueled and therefore can switch from gas to liquid fuels. Therefore, the government had ample time to procure alternative fuels if they were minded to do so and the country would not have found itself in darkness.”
Mr Bawa also said “by a stroke of good fortune, the maintenance works on the Gas Pipeline was completed ahead of schedule and gas supply has since resumed,” stressing that the maintenance is not the cause of Ghana’s problems but rather financial difficulties.