The Deputy Power Minister, John Jinapor, is assuring consumers of an uninterrupted power supply as the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant finally shuts down for mandatory maintenance.

The exercise expected to last for at least a week is to among other things, enable engineers to undertake a major repair and maintenance works on the Plant in line with insurance requirements.

There have since the announcement of the shutdown been concerns about possible power outages to the detriment of especially, businesses and individual users alike.

But speaking with JOY BUSINESS at a 3-day International Roadshow underway in Accra dubbed “POWER ELEC”, Mr. Jinapor said measures have been put in place to ensure reliable power supply.

“The gas processing plant went down around 23:00 GMT on Wednesday night, so we are currently not receiving gas from the Plant. The good news is based on the measure put in place, it would appear that we are smoothing out,” he said.

Mr Jinapor said so far, they are not suffering any major hitch and they are still in the process of converting some of the thermal plants into light crude.

“We are still appealing to Ghanaians to stay calm while we take steps to stabilize the situation,” he added. 

According to him, it is only the Ameri plant and some thermal plants in the Takoradi enclave which are down and they hope that in a week things will be up and running.

Meanwhile, President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) James Asare Agyei wants government to take steps to reverse of the arrangement where industry is made to pay higher tariffs whereas residential users are subsidized.

“AGI has persistently been calling for the implementation of a medium to long-term strategic energy plan which will help our economy. At the moment, there has been some improvement, but we need to do a lot more particularly when it comes to tariffs,” he said. 

Mr Agyei said it is important to have a reclassification of power tariffs so that industry will pay the right amount.

“The situation where industry is subsidizing residential power users doesn’t make industry competitive. If you have businesses bringing goods from other countries, for instance, say China, where power tariffs are between three and five cents per kilowatts hour and you find yourself in an environment in a where you paying 21 cents per hour, you can’t compete,” he said. 

The roadshow is organized by experts and specialists from Dubai, India, Turkey and Ghana in partnership with the AGI.