Mr. Felix Owusu Agyepong, Minister of Energy says the provision of adequate energy is key to country's quest to achieve a middle-income status in 2012. "Government believes this country cannot become a middle income country without adequate supply of energy at affordable prices. Adequate supply of energy could lead to the drastic reduction in the payment for cost of power generated," he stated. Mr. Owusu-Agyepong said this when he visited the premises of Sunon Asogli power plant located in Kpone near Tema. The project would utilize natural gas from the West African Gas Pipe Line from Nigeria to produce 560 megawatts electricity of which 200 megawatts would be produced by the end of the year upon the completion of the first phase. It was the first overseas project of the Shenzhen Energy Group (SEG). He urged industrialists to increase their efficiency and cooperate with the government to ensure that there was a drastic reduction in the cost of generating power supply. Mr. Owusu Agyepong said when the private sector managed to assist in reducing the cost of power supply, a competitive spirit is developed and the consumer becomes and the gains were transferred to the consumer He gave the assurance that government would play its role effectively to ensure that the challenges facing the country in terms of generating power were solved for the benefit of the consumer. "It was the hope of government that, in the next 4 to 5 years consumers would be able to pay affordable prices for the generation of electricity. Togbui Afede XIV, Agbogbomefia of Asogli Traditional area and brain behind the project said the supply of gas had become a major challenge for completing the project even before schedule. "The first power megawatt of energy would have been supplied by the December deadline if gas was supplied for the project. The lack of air conditioners and a charge of 0.4 percent for GCNET rates were the other challenges facing the completion of the project way beyond schedule," he said Mr. Wang Jianxiao, Engineering Manager of the SEG said under the project, a total of 560 Megawatts of energy was to be generated; "200 Megawatts of Energy would be generated by December this year whiles an additional 360 Megawatts was expected to be generated before the end of 2009. Miss Flower Liu, Director of Administration of the SEG said over 400 Ghanaians had been employed as staff for the construction of the power generating plant. "We have brought down expertise from China to train the Ghanaian workforce so that after the completion of the project, the Ghanaian workforce would enable to manage the facility after the Chinese expertise had left," she said. Source: GNA