Adnan Adams Mohammed
The day-old John Mahama administration has swiftly worked to avert an imminent power crisis it inherited from the NPP administration.
A committee led by Julius Debrah, Chief of Staff, has managed to purchase emergency fuel from Nigeria and others in replace of gas supply cut from the West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo) due to a planned maintenance scheduled to take place from January 20 to February 16, 2025.
It was estimated by the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) that, about US$ 89 million will be needed to to buy liquid fuel to replace the gas cut to all power generation plants in the Tema enclave.
“A total of US$ 89.90 million is required to purchase liquid fuel to run thermal plants in order to meet demand for the period”, a GRIDCo report titled, “Power Supply Outlook For The WAGP Offshore Pigging From January 20 – February 16, 2025 And Projections For 2025” stated. “System demand is projected to grow steadily to an annual peak of 4,415.42MW by the last quarter of 2025.”
The report revealed that, the planned maintenance which was initially scheduled to take place in October 2024, but the immediate past NPP government coerced the company to postpone the exercise to this year.
“This maintenance was originally scheduled for October 2024 but had to be rescheduled at the request of the Ministry of Energy”, the report noted.
This is expected to affect gas supply to power generation plants, basically in Tema enclaves. It is expected that, there will be deficit in generation capacity during the period of the WAPCO pigging exercise. There is therefore the need to procure liquid fuel to run thermal plants in Tema to meet demand.
It further indicated that, “There will accordingly be the need to secure additional generation resources with dependable capacity of at least 244.66 MW by the last quarter of the year to ensure sustained supply adequacy by the end of the year.”
This is likely to resort in load shedding in days to come.
