The Deputy Minister of Power, John Jinapor, has served notice that electricity consumers may experience some power cuts as a result of a maintenance exercise being carried out by the Ghana Gas company on the Atuabo Gas Plant.
[contextly_sidebar id=”JcaSJ88oWE1iQewdX2AlrnNFQP2LoDVv”]According to him, some thermal plants that mostly rely on gas from Atuabo may be converted to receive light crude for power generation.
The process he explains, may lead to some power cuts.
“Some of the plants, especially AMERI have depended on the gas and so if you are not having gas then there is a constraint. We may switch some of the plants to light crude which is a process… we may want Ghanaians to bear with us in the event that there may be some interruptions with the switching to light crude oil,” John Jinapor stated.
The Atuabo gas processing plant is expected to be shut down for ten calendar days effective today, August 31, 2016.
A statement on the exercise indicated that the plant has been in operation for more than 12,000 hours which makes it necessary for maintenance to be carried out to meet warranty assurance requirements associated with the operation of the facility.
Speaking in an interview with Citi Business News, Mr. Jinapor however gave the assurance that the ministry would work around the clock to mitigate the effects of the non availability of gas from Atuabo.
“The positive side is that we do not anticipate the shutdown to be for a long period of time … even with that we are continuing to work around the clock and ensure that we sustain power as much as we can,” he stated.
But when you are working with machines, especially when switching you may encounter one interruption or another,” he added.
Earlier the Corporate Communications Manager of Ghana Gas, Alfred Ogbarmey told Citi Business News the company does not anticipate any significant impact of the planned maintenance shut down on the country’s power supply.
Alfred Ogbarmey however intimated that the move will lead to an increase in the cost of producing a kilowatt of energy as gas is less expensive compared to crude oil.
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By: Franklin Badu Jnr/Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana