Ghana may need to ration electricity over the next 10 months because it does not have the capacity to replace plants that have been closed for repair.
Electric power continues to be a major issue on the domestic agenda. Despite downplayed power supply shortages earlier this year, the state-owned electricity producer has said that the company has no reserves, though demand and supply are all the same.
Ghana is currently only able to supply 2,000 MW of power, out of an installed capacity of 2,800 MW, because some thermal plants are down for maintenance and upgrades.
While that shortfall should end in May, the Volta River Authority (VRA) said, “we will ration power any time a plant has to shut down for maintenance or repairs” until early 2015 when the supply will increase by 330 MW due to newly refurbished plants.
The Ghana Grid Company Limited (GridCo) transmission company issued a statement in March claiming that an increase in annual peak demand from around 1,730 MW to just over 1,940 MW between 2012 and 2013, with current demand at approximately 1,980 MW, is the key driver of power shortages rather than reduced power generation, transmission and distribution. GridCo is under pressure from energy and petroleum minister Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah to increase its efficiency.
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© 2014 Menas Associates
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