The Energy Ministry has outlined measures to reduce the current load shedding that has been described as the worst power-rationing in Ghana's history.

A statement issued and signed by the Head of Communications at the Energy Ministry, Edward Bawah, says government is doing a lot to fix the problem, including engaging a maintenance company to assist engineers at the Volta River Authority (VRA) to fix defective power plants.

Edward Bawa

According to the Energy Ministry, three reasons are accounting for the current load shedding:

1. Poor inflows of water into our hydro dams,

2. Erratic fuel supply from Nigeria

3. Non-availability of some generating units due to periodic maintenance.

The statement however, provides the following steps to tackle the problem:

a. In the short term engineers are working around the clock to bring on stream the plants that are currently unavailable because of one challenge or the other.

b) Govt is currently bringing in a 450 MW capacity fully flexible and ready to deploy emergency power ship system to Ghana in two installments. The first and second units each of 225MW are expected to commence commercial operation in the 1st and 2nd Quarters of 2015 respectively.

c) Under the Ministry’s directive VRA has now engaged the service of an Operations and Maintenance Company (O&M) to work hand-in-hand with them to complement local skills and expertise in the optimum management of our thermal power plants which have recorded the lowest availability in recent times.

d) It is also anticipated that the completion of the 110MW expansion work on the TICO plant and Units 1 & 2 of the Kpone Thermal Power Plant (220MW) by the first quarter of 2015 will add more megawatts to the system.

e) The Gas Processing Plant is currently undergoing commissioning. Even within this commissioning stage Plants at Aboadze are receiving significant processed gas from the Jubilee field. It is anticipated that the gas supply will gradually ramp up to 120MMSCF when the facility is in full operation.

The Ministry takes this opportunity to express its appreciation to Ghanaians for their understanding, even in the face of these temporal difficulties and wishes to promise that we will continuously work around the clock until this perennial challenge is eliminated.