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Business News of Monday, 27 April 2020

Source: laudbusiness.com

Energy sector going through reforms for better service – Amewu

Peter Amewu, energy minister Peter Amewu, energy minister

Energy Minister John Peter Amewu has noted that the energy sector of the Ghanaian economy is going through reforms in order to perform optimally under internationally best practice, build and improve the capacity of the various players and also to strengthen private sector participation.

He indicated that the government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is committed to ensuring constant power supply, hence these reforms.

“GRIDCo as we have today is a product of these reforms and has since then proven to be an institution par excellence in the ownership and operation of the National Interconnected Transmission System (NITS),” he indicated on Friday when the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) and the Sunon Asogli Energy, jointly commissioned a 330/161KV auto transformer valued at US$.5.5 million dollars.

“The government of Ghana’s energy policies prioritizes the implementation of critical transmission infrastructure to ensure efficient transfer of power from generation plants to load centres.

Mr Amewu said also that priority is given to implementation of projects to reduce transmission systems losses and improve systems reliability (reduce outages and improved quality).

“Whiles efforts are being made to restore and sustain the financial viability of the sector, this project is in line with the policy objectives to encourage both private and public investments in the power subsector.

“This collaboration between GRIDCo and Sunon Asogli is therefore a welcome news and should encourage others to do same..

“This project as born out of necessity. The rapid development of power generation infrastructure within the Tema industrial enclave has its attendant challenges. A oft of interventions has been put in place to alleviate the congestion and the project is one of such interventions.

“We have gotten to a stage in our country, where temporarily power outages cannot be tolerated. This therefore places a huge responsibility on the managers of these or to ensure that the lights are kept on at all times. This facility is therefore part of the measures that we are putting in place to ensure reliable and continues power supply in the country,” he said.

Mr Amewu further stated that the state power distributor, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is currently replacing all obsolete equipment I the power distribution chain.

He therefore called for cooperation from the public to ensure this exercise succeeds.

“To ensure that reliable power supply is maintained at all times, ECG and NEDCo are currently going through the replacement of obsolete equipment in the distribution system. I would appreciate the cooperation of all customers during this exercise aimed at serving customers better,” he said.

Chief Executive Officer of GRIDco, Mr Jonathan Amoako-Baah indicated that the commissioning of te transformer answers the for public-private investments in the energy sector of the Ghanaian economy.

“Our commitment is to maintain a stable and reliable electricity grid. This has certainly received a further boost with the completion of this project and GRIDCo continues to assure our esteemed customers and Ghanaians that we will work to deliver on our mandate whilst remaining a backbone to power delivery to several countries in the sub region,” he said at the launch.

He revealed that the GRIDCo contributed a 330/161KV auto transformer valued at US$3.3 million dollars towards the project whereas Asogli Energy contributed over $2.2million into the project.

“Sunon Asogli then contributed additional funding and another logistics amounting to over US$2 million dollars which was enough to ensure the success of the initiative,” he noted.