Gov’t urged to encourage solar energy usage

Vice Chairman for the Public Interest Accountability Committee PIAC, Kwame Jantuah has said government should encourage the general public to consider adopting the use of solar energy to reduce the burden on the national grid.

“We are not even encouraging ordinary man to go into solar energy usage; this will help the country’s energy usage.

“If from this point on we tell estate developers that it is mandatory that any house you build like the hospitals, hotels, tertiary institutions, these are consuming electricity

He told discussant during a TV3 show that Ghanaians need to desist from politicising the current electricity interruptions.

He explained that politicizing the issue would rather have adverse effect on finding a solution to problem which some critics says has resurfaced after government announced its end earlier this year.

The situation, according to him is likely to be same if any other government was in power, saying, “I’m not sure whether we’re able to tap into the West African Gas pipeline but this is not a political affair, because it affects everybody.”

There has been in recent times been interruptions in electricity supply in parts of the country due to what providers say has come about as a result of the maintenance work on the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah and inadequate natural gas supply from Nigeria.

The Load Management Committee announced Friday that the interruptions were temporary, saying, “We want to assure all power consumers that the current interruptions are temporary,” and noted engineers were working around the clock to keep the disruptions to the barest minimum and restore full supply to customers as soon as gas delivery resumes.

This has heightened suspicion of a resumption of load shedding arising out of dumsor, which impacted negatively on the various aspects of the economy in the last three years.

But while admitting that government is responsible for the management and finding solution to the problem, Mr Jantuah said once it affects everyone we need to desist from making it a political issue.

“It doesn’t benefit anyone to politicize it. Yes, the government is responsible but it affects everyone,” he said, and urged all, particularly those with expertise in the area, to bring their ideas together to find a solution to the problem.

Mr Jantuah also called on the Ministry of Power to release information on the power situation to Ghanaians on regular basis.

“If we don’t have the resource to buy crude then obviously we are going back to ‘dumsor’. I think the kind of information the ministry started with in terms of informing Ghanaians on a regular basis on what is happening should start now [sic]’’ he said.

Ghana’s floating oil vessel, FPSO Kwame Nkrumah was shut down on March 20 to allow for a two-week mandatory inspection and maintenance.

The shutdown curtailed gas flow from the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant to the Aboadze Thermal enclave in Takoradi in the Western Region; something that affected in power generation in the country.

However, the scheduled completion date has since been extended to the last week in April. That, coupled with inadequate natural gas supply from Nigeria, has caused a generation deficit of about 1000 megawatts of electricity.

Natural gas supply from Nigeria has remained at around 10 per cent of the contract volume of 120 millions of cubic feet for more than a month now.