Water Level Drops: VRA boss hints at power problem

THE VOLTA River Authority (VRA) has disclosed that the level of the Volta Lake has dropped so much that it now produces half of the hydro-electricity it normally generates.
Dr. Charles Yves Wereko Brobby, VRA’s Chief Executive, says the lake level this year is probably as bad as it was in 1998.
As a result, electric power derived from the dam for sale to the Electricity Company of Ghana by the VRA which constituted between 70% and 80% has been slashed to 50%.
The CE explained that the remaining 50% is derived from the thermal plant at Takoradi in the Western Region.
As would be recalled, in 1998 when poor rains reduced the volume of water in the lake drastically, compelling the VRA to close down some of the turbines generating the electricity, power outages became the order of the day.
While some manufacturers relying on the Akosombo hydro-electric power had to close down or incur substantial losses, individual consumers raised hue and cry over the damage of their gadgets and the inconveniences the often unannounced outages caused.
Records available indicate that whereas from December 1997 to May 1998, there was load-shedding in various parts of the country everyday, power outages, the same time this year are only 5% of what occured four years ago.
“The trick is thermal plant,” the VRA boss said.
Dr. Brobby, however, warned that If Ghanaians reject the proposed increases in electricity tariffs, the dark days would return as his outfit will not have enough money to buy fuel to run the plant.
Even before fuel prices begun to rise recently, the government had subsided the procurement of crude oil for the VRA to the tune of ?200 billion for the first quarter of this year alone.
In addition, the government has paid the ?500billion debt that the ECG owed the VRA last year in the form of funds to procure crude oil for the Takoradi plant.
“So since last year, Government has probably spent ?700billion for crude oil procurement alone,” the CE observed.
He contended that there are “much better social deserving costs than to subsidise the provision of electricity,”.
He cited the fields of education, health and job training as areas in which the state could have invested the collosal subsidies to better the lot of the poor.
Dr. Brobby argued that the continued subsidisation of electricity tariffs is tantamount to a “double jeopardy” for the vulnerable and poor rural dweller.
To begin with, it is the urban dweller, who is relatively richer than his rural counterpart, who enjoys electricity and its subsidies, he said.
At the same time, the poorer rural dweller who is denied better education and health delivery because of the subsidy buys candles, “keta lamps” and batteries to light his or her home.
In the estimation of the VRA boss, whiles it cost the electricity user ?16,000 to light his home for three months, the rural dweller spends more than thrice that amount in the same period, using less efficient substitutes.
The way out, he stressed, is to discriminate in deciding who should enjoy subsidy in electricity consumption.
“If you have to subsidise, you need to be transparent and targeted so that you pick people who genuinely cannot pay. When subsidies are blanket they end up in the hands of those who don’t deserve them.”
Asked whether the NPP government can absorb the pressure and criticism, if the tariffs are approved, Dr. Brobby replied that what is needed is for the consuming public to learn to understand that electricity like all other utilities have to be paid for.