Lack of enough generation capacity cause of current ‘Dumsor’ – IES

The Institute for Energy Security (IES) has attributed the current power outages in the country to lack of enough generation capacity.

Speaking to Joshua Kodjo Mensah on Starr Today, a Research Analyst with Institute for Energy Security, Fritz Moses stated that the country is not generating enough to meet the demand hence the frequent power outages also known as ‘dumsor’.

“The power outages in Accra, Western Region, Central Region and parts of Ashanti Region it’s something that need more detailed responses. Because the fact has been that have capacity about 5300 megawatt in the country now and our peak demand has been around 2400 megawatt so we should have an available capacity of 4000 megawatt.

“But, if Aboadze plant goes off and we are experiencing intermittent power outages when Aboadze is providing about 1000megawatt and its way lesser than the excess generated from the dependent capacity. It’s best to know whether we actually have enough available power to meet our needs,” he disclosed.

The Research Fellow also attributed the lack of enough generation to “the current challenge or situation has been as a result of the incident that happened at Aboadze.”

According to him, “we think the root cause has been very unfortunate to say that we don’t necessary have excess capacity in our generation because the in store capacity is not available all the time. The dependable or available capacity is always lesser than the in store capacity because most of the plants do not generate at full capacity.”

Meanwhile, the Ranking Member for the Mines and Energy Committee in Parliament, John Abdulai Jinapor, has said Ghana risks another bout of power challenges if nothing is done about the current energy situation.

In a piece on Facebook, the former deputy minister challenged the claims by Vice President Bawumia that country paying over GHC17 billion for excess energy capacity.

“The Energy Minister’s press briefing this morning at the Information Ministry confirmed a system Peak demand of 3,469MW against dependable capacity of 3,861MW for Ghana in 2022 (find table below).

“It is important to note that the Energy Commission has always recommended the Country ensures a Reserve Margin (insurance) of 18% above the peak demand. The reserve Margin which translates to 324MW, brings the total dependable capacity to 4,096MW,” Jinapor said.

He further noted: “From the Minister’s own figures Ghana has dependable capacity of 3,861MW which is below the required capacity?. At this rate Ghana risk experiencing massive Dumsor if nothing is done urgently.

“So the question to Dr. Bawumia is; where did you conjure those so-called excess capacity payments. We insist the Government publishes the breakdown of the so-called 17bn cedis payments on excess capacity. The deception is getting nauseating to say the least”.