The Deputy Energy Minister, Andrew Egyapa Mercer, has assured the general public that the government will continue making the requisite investment in the energy space.

This follows recent concerns about the return of dumsor in the face of frequent power outages that have hit the country.

The Minister for Energy, Dr. Mathew Opuku Prempeh had earlier raised concerns about an imminent impact on electricity supply due to a shortage of gas for production.

According to him, the issue is a result of excessive dependence on gas plants, which differs from the past reliance on liquid fuel to support energy generation.

Dr. Prempeh explained that the country is currently grappling with a double predicament, where a complete shift towards a gas-based system has left the power infrastructure vulnerable, and any interruption in the gas supply will lead to a shutdown of all power-generating systems, resulting in a complete blackout across the country.

Responding to similar concerns, Egyapa Mercer said to avert any future major disruption; the government has been making the requisite investment in the energy sector from generation all the way through transmission and distribution.

He noted that while the government is battling some problematic contractual frameworks signed by the Mahama administration in the energy sector, the ministry has put in place measures to drive up revenue generation in that sector and ensure utmost efficiency.

“And yes I agree, there has to be a lot of work with respect to ECGs collections, we’re doing a lot of interventions with respect to giving them resources to procure more prepaid, [we’ve] gotten support from the World Bank to enable them do more billing and collection,” he said.

Mr. Mercer further added that other issues are being timeously fixed to stem the current challenegs facing the sector.

“I’m saying that generational capacity we’ve had no issues there, we’ve had some challenges with fuel delivery and transportation, that’s been resolved, we’re looking to improve the cash waterfall mechanism continuously to ensure that whatever resources that come in everybody in the value chain gets it.

“ECG has gone into an arrangement with all the IPPs to pay them a certain guaranteed amount of money per month, 43 million dollars per month. At least from July or so consistently they’ve been paying that money.

“We’ve had conversations with ministry of finance to support them in paying the local generators and transmission companies some additional support so that they also can survive.

“But yes I agree, looking at a comprehensive reform of the ECG system to ensure that we are able to collect as much of the money that they bill to ensure that everybody else in the value chain is paid,” he said.