The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) will on Thursday release a time table for the ongoing load shedding exercise.
The Energy Ministry has disclosed that the power rationing will be intensified due to disruption of gas supply from Nigeria following labour unrest in that country.
This means a shutdown of the Asogli Power plant which provides about 180 megawatts of energy to the national electricity grid.
This is the third time Nigeria has interrupted its gas supply to Ghana in 2014 alone but the Volta River Authority (VRA) has said it will go back to the use of crude oil to power the country’s generation plants.
The development means there will be an energy deficit of about 350 megawatts; a situation likely to intensify the current load shedding exercise in the country.
[contextly_sidebar id=”ifj68Zr4d7tnhWo9hBqdJivNW7CqS7fC”]The Head of Cooperate Communications at the VRA, Sam Fletcher told Citi News that most of the machines being used the VRA are dual fuel powered therefore, in the absence of natural gas, the authority will switch to the use of light crude oil.
He said although running on crude may be expensive, there is no other alternative saying, “it’s more expensive though but under such circumstances, that is what we should do so that is what we will be doing.”
Fletcher disclosed that the remaining gas currently being used in the production of electricity “is almost gone so we will be switching off immediately to light crude.”
Meanwhile, Karpower International Limited, a Turkish company is expected to build two emergency power ships for Ghana.
The project will be pre-financed by Karpower and the cost would be paid on the amount of energy delivered to the system.
The two mobile energy plants when delivered will add four hundred and fifty more megawatts of power to the national grid.
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By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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