The Minister of Power, Dr. Kwabena Donkor has been questioned by the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, over how his ministry will pragmatically solve the current energy crisis.
This follows the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) ‘wɔn gbo’ demonstration to express their displeasure over the power crisis.
[contextly_sidebar id=”nVOakPp1wcmaJWpOqzMv5HEYyaxDGgeU”]The Minister first explained the reasons for current power situation and emergency plans rolled out by government to improve the situation.
Speaking in an interview with Citi News’ Raymond Acquah after the meeting, the Minority Spokesperson on Energy KT Hammond explained that the committee was worried about measures put in place to deal with the situation but will now wait to see how the proposed solutions will pan out.
Though KT Hammond noted that the Minister explained to them why the power barges did not go through Parliament, he insisted the facility could have been tabled before Parliament under a certificate of urgency.
He said the Power Minister “informed us of the peak demand which is about 2400 megawatts. He thinks we are going to run short by about 500 megawatts that the system cannot support that. So he gave us a breakdown of how much each unit is producing, from Akosombo to Bui, to Kpong to all the various plants in the country.”
“He said T3 is not producing anything at all. He told us how much power is available to be distributed. The proportionate distribution of the load shedding exercise, how much each region of the country has to shed and that is in relation to how much they get from original distribution of power.”
On the power barges, KT Hammond said Mr Donkor told them that “he has gone to turkey to arrange for one and United Arab Emerites to look for another one. He also talked about General Electrics also arranging to install some other 200 or 300 megawatts.”
–
By: Godwin Allotey Akweiteh/citifmonline.com/Ghana