Ghana’s three years of power crisis is likely to resurface following the extension of maintenance works on the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah to another two weeks.
Operators of the oil vessel shut it down for maintenance works which was initially scheduled to be completed on Tuesday, April 5, 2016. This was to allow for the uptake of gas effective Saturday, April 9, 2016.
But the Ministry of Power has extended the extension of the maintenance works by an additional two weeks, due on Friday, April 22, 2016.
Speaking on the latest development, the Deputy Minister of Power, John Jinapor admitted that power producers would be constrained during the period,
“To be very honest with you in the next two weeks, it is a tight situation for us and we can have some deficit. It is very likely we will have a deficit. It is too early to draw the conclusion but it’s likely so let’s prepare, and that is why even for the two weeks that the FPSO went down, we did indicate that we are constrained but we will try and hold it. We still have that same agenda,” John Jinapor stated.
Government and the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) had both assured that there would not be any distraction in the supply of power as measures had been put in place to ensure regular supply of gas to the VRA for power generation.
However, some Ghanaians complained of the intermittent power supply during the period.
The situation has partly been attributed to a decline in gas supply from Nigeria Gas. Also, the AMERI power plant is not working due to the non- availability of gas from the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah.
On whether or not engineers or managers of the Akosombo Dam will not sacrifice the availability of power for long term survival of the dam, John Jinapor said,
He indicated; “I trust the engineers, I have absolute confidence in them… I prefer to rest the dam, some of the turbines for the next two weeks so that we have continuous supply of power than to risk running them for just two weeks for whatever expediency and then have a major problem ahead…So we will take the right decision”.
African Eye Report
