Energy Analyst, Benjamin Nsiah Asare has called on Ghanaians to brace themselves for another round of load shedding, known in local parlance as Dumsor as the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is not receiving enough power from the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to serve customers.
Electricity consumers in Ghana have since the festive season been experiencing power outages especially in the evenings with some demanding for the publication of Dumsor timetable but the ECG and other power producers have been mute about this demand.
Speaking on Angel Morning Show (AMS) on Wednesday, Mr Asare revealed that the ECG and Gridco are not forthcoming with information because the country has now been plucked into Dumsor because energy consumption far outweighs demand.
“In Decemeber, our peak demand of 3400 megawatts was not met as the supply from the IPPs was less so ECG had to shed load during the peak times to be able to continuously serve customers…,” he said.
The short fall in energy supply is as result of the huge amounts Ghana owe these IPPs which is between $1.6 billion and $2 billion.
“The truth is that the Government of Ghana owes almost every Independent Power Producer (IPP), some of them are legacy debts while others are recurrent debts which government promised to pay but recent reports from PURC show that the government has been unable to fulfill this promise…,” he revealed to host, Okayakyie Afrifa-Mensah.
The Energy Analyst added that some of the debts date back to 2016 when the country signed numerous power purchase agreements just to end the Dumor the country experienced during John Mahama’s era.
“Some of the debts are historical, for example some of them are as a result of the power agreements that the country signed in 2016 where we have had to pay for over-generation of gas and power…,” he added.
The failure of some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MMDAs), to pay the over $1.4 million debts owed ECG and the huge technical and commercial losses are part of the reasons government cannot pay debts owed IPPs.
“Ghana has the highest technical and commercial losses in Africa…this means that ECG claims to lose 30% of power supplied them so they lose at least 30% of revenue through technical and commercial losses…,” he added.
Mr Asare further said that the failure of the country to find solutions to the energy sector debts and the over-staffing of ECG are also part of the problems at the energy sector.
“ECG is over-staffed…a company that always makes losses and still has this huge number of emplyees cannot make gains…ECG needs a total overhaul to cut down some of their losses…if we still have 30% of technical and commercial losses, then what at all is the manager doing…,?” he questioned.
