Ghanaians must brace themselves up and pay more for power, the Power Minister has said, declaring that the days of cheap power are over.

According Dr. Kwabena Donkor, the call has become necessary because the Akosombo Dam has become less reliable for the provision of power. He was speaking at a sod cutting ceremony for a sub-station at Dawa in the Greater Accra Region.

He said “the Akosombo Dam has historically provided us with very cheap power when it generates at less than two cents per kilowatt hour and this has enabled Ghana become the cheapest source of power in the sub region.

“However, as the role of Akosombo diminishes and we now have to have a lot more thermal complementation, the mix makes the marginal cost of any additional megawatt higher and therefore if we are to sustain the industry, then cost must be reflected in the price we pay for power”, he added.

Ghana for the past three years has been grappling with unstable power supply. Companies have had to lay off workers. Several other businesses have closed down due to the high cost of fuel to power generators.

Currently, the Electricity of Ghana is shedding about 400MW from the national grid.

However, one of the two power barges pro­ducing a total of 450 megawatts has set sail to Ghana from Turkey to augment power generation in the country.

Meanwhile, government has also instructed Karpower the company producing the powership to increase the capac­ity of the second barge from the ini­tial 225 megawatts to 400 megawatts.

The government has assured an end to the erratic power supply in December.