No dumsor in first quarter of 2017 - Jinapor assures

The Deputy Ministry of Power John Jinapor has reiterated that there will be no dumsor in 2017 after the NDC government has handed over power to the NPP.

His latest response follows a letter written by the Volta River Authority (VRA) to GRIDCo informing them of a 15- day interruption in gas supply from February and March 2017.

The VRA in the letter said that “power from Ameri Energy will also not be available during that period.”

The VRA has therefore asked managers of the power system to meet and come up with strategies to limit supply challenges.

But speaking on Accra-based Citi FM Jinapor said dumsor will not occur if the incoming government puts in mechanisms to solve the issue.

READ ALSO: ECG et al owe VRA GHC 5 billion

“If we do our things well, if we continue to put in place the right mechanisms and the right framework and we build on the gains we have made so far, we should never have load shedding and this is factual. Even if we don’t have gas from the FPSO, most of the plants in the west; thus the Aboadze enclave can run on lite crude oil. This year, getting into the election we had a 21 day shutdown of the FPSO, it did not affect production. And so if you could manage it for 21 days, it means you can equally manage it for one month.”

He added that with the additional plants coming on-board it will supplement the hydro power generated from the Akosombo dam.

“We are having additional capacities coming onboard. So if you don’t have gas Ameri may not produce but you have a complement of between about 370 [megawatts]. The second batch of Karpower is also available and will start producing in around February. So you are looking to about 600 megawatts of extra capacity coming on board. In addition to that the hydro levels have gone up to appreciable levels. From that low of about 235 we hit over 250 so it means that given all the conditions that we have we should not go into load shedding.”

The energy think tank, Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), earlier predicted the comeback of the electricity crisis in 2017.

In a report titled ‘Beyond 2016 Elections, Energy Sector Priorities’, ACEP warned the return in April 2017 of the much-dreaded electricity crisis, popularly known as dumsor.

According to ACEP, dumsor’s comeback will be as a result of the inadequacy of fuel to power Ghana’s generation plants.

But the Ghana Gas Company has also rubbished this claim. The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gas Company, George Sipa Yankey has said that there is enough power available.