KT Hammond: Gov’t doesn’t care about power sector

A former Deputy Energy Minister, K T Hammond says the current power crisis in Ghana can be put down to Government’s neglect of the energy sector.

There is currently a production deficit which has led state distributor Electricity Company of Ghana to shed about 450 megawatts of load.

Domestic consumers, per a new load-shedding timetable released by the ECG on Tuesday, will suffer 12 hours without power every two days. Industrial zones, on the other hand, will suffer two straight days without power within every week.

K.T. Hammond is convinced Ghanaians would not be bearing the brunt of the power situation if the Government had given a little more attention to the power sector.

“Why is it that we are not getting enough power? My understanding is that some of the plants are just simply sitting down not doing anything and it is simply because the government is not giving them money – VRA, the generators of electricity – to buy crude to produce. Simple as that. That is all there is to this problem,” the Adansi Asokwa Legislator told Paa Kwesi Asare on BUSINESS FOCUS Tuesday on STARR 103.5FM.

“And I could take you through the specific machines apart from those which have had to go through routine maintenance – and it is routine maintenance anyway, so they know it is routine – if it’s routine, we shouldn’t be plunged into this sort of situation. It’s simply because the Government does not care.”