Testifying before the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, Boakye Agyarko said immediately after the ratification of the deal by Parliament in August 2015, some already agreed terms were changed which should have gone back to Parliament.

He thus supports any move by Parliament to review the decision it took two years ago.

[contextly_sidebar id=”RTKO37IbzaqEOx0V8yCOe3CRyL9WOwiq”]Making his case before Parliament, Mr. Agyarko said: “the key highlights if I may determine or if it is within my province to determine, will be the choices that we made. I think whether we buy outright, whether we lease or whether we go into a build operate and transfer (BOT), of interest also is the question of pricing, and the quality of the financial and economic analysis that is weighed in this matter of such gravity. The nation’s money of over 500 million dollars is being put in an asset. One would have wished that it will attract the highest quality of investigation in terms of its financial and economic analysis. The synopsis also tracks a number of flip-flops.”

“In my mind, if Parliament approves or ratifies a document, and there are major changes to the document, It stands to reason that it goes back to Parliament for a review, otherwise Parliament will approve a document only to find out that changes, amendments have been made without their consent . That is something that must lend itself to investigation” he argued.

AMERI in its agreement with Government dated February 10th, 2015, reportedly charged Ghana significantly higher than what it was charged by the Turkish registered company, PPR, which financed and executed the project.

The Turkish firm pegged the total cost of the project at a maximum of $360 million.

However, in the Build Operate Own Transfer (BOOT) agreement signed between the government and AMERI, the deal was pegged at a minimum of 510 million dollars leaving Ameri with a commission of $150 million.

The company was to provide Ghana with 300MW of energy to help improve the country’s energy situation.

Withdraw AMERI deal – K.T Hammond

Although the Energy Minister backs calls for the deal to be reviewed,  the Adansi Asokwa Member of Parliament, K. T Hammond, who was the ranking member of the Energy Committee of Parliament when the deal was signed, filed an urgent motion in Parliament to have the deal rescinded.

According to him, this was because of fresh information he had received concerning the agreement which showed that the deal was fraudulent. K.T Hammond revealed on Eyewitness News in August that, Ghana stands to lose that $150 million to AMERI in the deal.

Cancelling AMERI deal will be disservice to Ghana – Donkor

The former Minister of Power , Kwabena Donkor, has however warned that investments into Ghana’s economy will be greatly affected if the AMERI power deal is canceled.

“The impact on future investment, if approvals by parliament can be rescinded, when a new government comes in with a new parliament because they have the numbers they rescind it, what will be the impact on Ghana’s investment climate?” he asked.

“Already, for developing countries, there is a political risk of investment, and therefore we pay a premium for investment because of perceived political risk. If we aggravate this by rescinding decisions properly approved, because one government is in power, and has numbers to push it through, it will be short-term and it will not be in the national interest, and in my opinion, it will be misleading, I think a rescission will be a disservice to Ghana,” he added.

The deal received parliamentary approval on 20th March, 2015, but subsequent details suggested that, the government may have been short-changed by AMERI as they presented an overpriced budget.

Parliament has been reconsidering the deal to possibly reverse it if evidence of the state being shortchanged is found.

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By: Marian Ansah & Duke Mensah Opoku/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Let’s make it clear from the onset that in our discussions pertaining to energy poverty in SSA, South Africa that accounts for about 50% of electricity consumed in Africa is not among the SSA countries.

It must be noted also that the substantial portion of the other 50% of the meager amount of electricity in Africa is consumed by the five northern African countries, namely Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. Hence 46 countries in the SSA, including Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, consume less than several small countries in Europe.

It is worth noting that due to financial constraints in SSA, new power plants are built with insufficient generating capacities, making the tariffs of the generated electricity too high for the majority of people with low purchasing power. Hence many Governments are ethically bound to subsidize the electricity consumption of the poor. So it is paramount to make tariffs as low as possible, and that depends on (1) the choice of the primary energy source for power generation, and (2) by economies of scale, — the larger the installed capacity, the lower will be the tariff.

Obviously, to build large power stations with installed capacities exceeding 2000 MWe may not be technically feasible for several individual countries in the West African sub-region, but may be appropriate to serve say 3-4 countries.

This comes somehow close to the stance of Ghana’s successive Presidents to make Ghana a hub of power supply in our sub-region. Ghana started to export electricity to its neighbors long ago, and currently has transmission line connections with La Cote d’Ivoire to the west, Togo and Benin to the east, as well as Burkina Faso to the north of Ghana. The rate of power export has however dwindled with Ghana even importing power sometimes from La Cote d’Ivoire with associated trips in the transmission lines.

It is also important to add that, great is the wish of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to have reliable and affordable power supply to improve quality of life in the sub-region from abject poverty. In fact the 14 countries in ECOWAS have had since the year 2000 the West Africa Power Pool (WAPP) program to boost power supply in this region.

So far only seven countries, namely Ghana, La Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Niger are currently inter-connected, with Ghana, La Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria serving as the hubs of power supply. It is quite certain that, whenever a couple of sufficiently large generating capacities are added in our sub-region, other countries; – Mali, Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Gambia could also be inter-connected.

In this global village, energy is associated with many-sided issue, and this is also evident in our quest for suitable energy to accelerate our economic growth. We should recall that, prior to the epic 21st Convention of Parties (COP-21) for the Universal Paris Agreement in 2015, all countries pledged to curb their carbon emissions meaningfully. Since the pledged commitments, known in the agreement as the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) were not adequate enough, all the countries have been asked to pursue efforts to cut deeper and faster their carbon emissions so that by 2050 the increase in global warming would be less than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial levels. Furthermore, they are expected to submit every five years, updated INDCs which should be more vigorous than the preceding ones.

The rich countries have enormously contributed to environmental pollution and climate change from the profuse use of fossil fuels, and are still the leading polluters. It can be deduced from the records of carbon emissions per capita that, energy consumed per capita in the west, is consumed in SSA by 20-30 people just for their basic subsistence needs.

Yet, the rich nations steadfastly oppose any differentiated responsibility in the Paris Agreement. Let’s note also that in 2015 or so, China said its use of fossil fuel would peak in 16 years, giving China an ample time to develop its quality of life closer to that in the west. India, another country fast growing economy, has also made a similar statement. Against this background, we would underline in Issue 1, the urgency of the energy poverty in SSA, which can be perceived, perhaps, by how far Ghana has been left behind in electricity consumption by her close competitors in the 1960s.

In Issue 2, we shall show that the Kyoto Protocol, which was replaced by the Paris Agreement, was human-centered as the first and second UN sponsored environmental summits in 1972 and 1992 in Stockholm, Sweden and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil respectively. We shall discuss also; (1) the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which organizes annually climate change meetings, known as the Convention of the Parties (COP), and (2) the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC has three working groups respectively responsible for (1) the scientific aspect, (2) the consequences, and (3) mitigation options for climate change.

The IPCC has developed five Assessment Reports. The Third Assessment for the third group was incidentally held in Accra in 2001. Whereas the report said among other things that intermittent Wind Power (WP) and Solar Power (SP) could not be used for a stand-alone power source, Nuclear Power (NP) was described as a mature technology that could effectively replace coal-fired plants. But the NP, the most effective mitigation option for global warming is hardly mentioned at climate change meetings. The 7th goal of the Sustainable Development Goals is also silent on NP. It will be shown in our discussions later that, that is wrong.

In Issue 3, we shall discuss that the choice of a primary energy source for a new power is greatly influenced by variables, such as (1) capital or investment cost, (2) material or/and land requirements, (3) externalities or external costs, dealing with environmental issues, (4) energy security, and (5) capacity factor (CF), which varies from 90 to 15 or 10%, depending on the choice of the primary energy source. We shall also discuss the current status of the primary energy sources in three distinctive categories, – renewables, fossil fuels, and nuclear energy with the expectation of zero carbon emissions, not only in the energy sector, but also in industrial, domestic, and transport sectors, by 2050.

It will be argued in Issue 4 that the merits of NP are obscured by people’s misconception of nuclear energy. And yet, no effort is made to disseminate to the general public the results of many studies which show that NP is safe and clean. It needs to be said also that the proponents for WP and SP tend to over-glorify WP and SP when they, unknowingly or willfully fail to mention their limitations. Due to their intermittency, WP and SP are not dispatch-able, or simply put, not reliable for the grid. If we can take as a litmus test Germany’s vow in 2011 to replace NP with WP and SP, then we can immediately see the results of such decisions which include (1) skyrocketing tariffs mainly for domestic consumers, and (2) often unstable power systems which affect also Germany’s neighboring countries.

Issue 5 will be on the Deep De-carbonization Pathway Project (DDPP), undertaken by 16 leading countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, the UK, and the USA. The publishers of the DDPP were Teresa Ribera of IDDRI and Jeffrey Sachs of SDSN, who was Energy and Ecology Advisor to the former UN secretaries Messrs Ban Ki-Moon and Kofi Anann. Two DDPP reports were issued before the COP-21 meeting in Paris in 2015. It must be stated that NP will not be part of energy-mix by 2050 in Germany and in Italy, where political referenda have barred the use of NP in Italy. But it is interesting to note that, Italy says in her report that, the unavailability of NP is its top challenge, which makes things more costly.

In Issue 6 and the subsequent chapters, we shall discuss several aspects of NP to allay many peoples’ concerns about NP. Let’s underscore first that NP is safe and clean. Note that France, and the entire EU have used NP to produce substantial amount of clean and affordable electricity yearly for decades without any fatalities or serious injuries. On the other hand, there have been serious injuries and fatalities from other energy sources, including WP and SP.

Let’s note that nobody died from the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, despite the scaremongers’ apocalyptic predictions of heavy casualties. It can be found from www.caithnesswindfarms.co.uk/AccidentStatistics.htm, that there were 15 fatal accidents in 2011 associated with WP. It can be found on this website that the number of fatal accidents associated with WP from 2011 to end of May, 2017 is 55, arguably the number of fatalities could be more than 55.

Nuclear reactors are robustly built with several in-depth measures and multiple barriers to make them as safe as possible. That is technically feasible due to the smallness of nuclear fuel, and that can be deduced from Albert Einstein’s famous equation E=mc2, where ‘m’ stands for the mass of fuel, while ‘c’ is the speed of light which is about 300,000,000 meter per second, a very huge figure. Hence a small amount of nuclear fuel is turned into a tremendous amount of energy.

To appreciate that in practical terms, let us compare the fuel requirements for a coal power plant and a reactor of the same wattage of 1000 MWe. The coal plant needs daily 8000 – 9000 tons of coal, while the reactor requires about 30 tons of nuclear fuel once every 18 months to replace about one-third of the core fuel. Nuclear fuel that has been used in the core for over four years and declared as used or spent fuel still contains about 95% of original fuel.

Ghana’s nuclear power programme development presents a good opportunity to override Ghana’s power sector challenges in the medium to long term whiles meeting Ghana’s intended nationally determined contribution.
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By: Dr. Isaac Newton Acquah

The author is a former Scientific Staff, GAEC & a former Safeguard Inspector, IAEA.

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According to him, the government’s decision to “clandestinely” increase the price of fuel is “unfortunate”.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, John Jinapor said the fuel price increase is an indication of the government’s failure to keep up with its campaign promise of removing taxes that contribute to the fuel price build up.

[contextly_sidebar id=”WZy4kDVQunplMw9fBRBmBQ27X92SjNlI”]“I went to the pump today [Tuesday], and realized there is an increment. NPA and government must come out clear on what is happening. This idea of clandestinely increasing fuel prices is most unfortunate. If you increase fuel prices, communicate it, so that there is no ambiguity,” John Jinapor said.

Some drivers, especially in Accra, have in the past week complained about an exponential increase in the price of fuel at various fuel stations although there has not been any official communication from the government or any agency in the petroleum sector to that effect.

Information available to citifmonline.com indicates that, the price of fuel hit an all-year record high this month [September], with Diesel being sold at  GH¢4.29 per litre, and Petrol being sold at GH¢ 4.23.

In July, diesel was sold at about GH¢ 3.77 per litre, while petrol was sold at GH¢ 3.76. John Jinapor alleged that some drivers had begun increasing transport fares, although there has not been any general talk about increases in transport fares.

“Some drivers have gone ahead to increase their transport fares by as much as 30%. I think the government must live up to its responsibility and protect the Ghanaian interest and do what is right,” he said.

The Institute of Energy Security (IES), had earlier predicted a 7% increase in fuel prices.

The increase has been attributed to the marginal depreciation of the cedi, as well as increased global crude oil prices due to the recent floods in the US which affected production at major oil companies.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Come clean on ‘secret’ fuel price increases – Jinapor dares gov’t appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Minority Member of Parliament for Damongo, Adam Mutawakilu, argued that the reduction in the public lighting levy and others in the budget, are woefully inadequate and would result in only a minimal effect for consumers.

Contributing to the debate on the budget on the Floor of Parliament on Friday, Adam Mutawikilu indicated that, the budget was a testament to the fact that government was not interested in reducing electricity tariffs.

[contextly_sidebar id=”HcC11GWgpxXKN2iYKw63CetANBhtL1Bl”]”…the Minister of Energy when he was being vetted, stated that his special focus was on lifeline consumers. When you take the lifeline consumers, they are consumers who consume between zero and 50 units in kilowatt hours. The highest any lifeline consumer will consume would be GHc17.77. The contribution of public lighting levy and national electrification levy is GHc1.64. When you reduce it by 2 percent and 3 percent respectively; you are only giving the highest unit consumed by lifeline consumer only 84 pesewas. So that means that the worst tariff for lifeline consumer is 84 pesewas and you [Energy Minister] initially said this tariff was suffocating,” he explained.

We’ll reduce energy sector levies – Boakye Agyarko

The Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko, during his vetting in January 2017, announced an ambitious plan by the New Patriotic Party government to reduce energy sector levies.

“We will start by reviewing the levies downwards and as we finish the financial engineering of the non-recourse approach then it may be necessary not to have it altogether or use it as part of the dedicated stream of revenues to service the ten to fifteen year tenure,” Boakye Agyarko noted.

The President, Nana Akufo-Addo, prior to his election in December 2016, promised to reduce electricity tariffs if he is elected as President.

He lamented that the current tariffs were exorbitant and beyond the ordinary Ghanaian.

“I think it is important for there to be clarity on this matter. If the government cannot or will not listen to the calls for the reduction of electricity tariffs, it is important for the people of Ghana to know that, God-willing, if I win the elections of this year, I definitely will. I will definitely reduce electricity tariffs,” Nana Akufo-Addo said on May 26, 2016.

Meanwhile, his government in the 2017 budget reduced the Public Lighting Levy “from 5 percent to 2 percent”, and further reduced the “National Electrification Scheme Levy from 5 percent to 3 percent.”

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By: Godwin A. Alllotey & Duke Mensah Opoku/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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Speaking during his vetting at Parliament House on Monday, Mr. Boakye Agyarko said: “The energy sector we find now is seriously cash-strapped to the extent that we now live in a debt merry go round.”

According to him, the energy sector even lacks the resources to ensure regular maintenance that will enhance power supply.

[contextly_sidebar id=”fkRzfrvIgvdhLgisP9CnSvO7gataJI2f”]“The problem of ‘dumsor’ has been principally one of money. If you look at the value chain for power delivery, the major power generator, VRA and the Independent Power Producers (IPP), buy their crude, they generate power, load it onto GRIDCo; GRIDCo sells it to ECG, and ECG collects the money and makes payment. ECG is not able to collect and pay GRIDCo . GRDICo therefore is not able to pay the power producers. The power producers are therefore not able to pay for crude, and that limits their ability to generate power.”

“As it stands now, roughly forty, forty five percent of installed capacity is idle. It is idle because we cannot get the gas, the LCO or the HFO to power these plants. In certain circumstances, we do not have the money to do scheduled and regular maintenance, therefore threatening the plant in terms of warranty and insurance, so the problem has largely been one of how the money has been managed in the energy sector.”

He made this comment while responding to a question posed by a Member of Parliament’s Appointment Committee on effective measures that can be taken to resolve Ghana’s energy problems.

Ghana’s power crisis, popularly referred to as ‘dumsor’, has slowed down economic growth and frustrated citizens.

Way forward

But proffering solutions to these challenges, Mr. Agyarko said the sector under his tenure will commit to improving “financial management and structuring within the energy sector.”

‘Dumsor must remain in the past’ – Nana Addo

President Nana Addo in nominating his Policy Adviser for the 2016 election campaign, Boakye-Agyarko, for the position, asked him to ensure that the power crisis, which was christened ‘dumsor’, becomes a thing of the past.

President Akufo-Addo also indicated that, the Ministry of Power and Petroleum will now fall under the Ministry of Energy, and will be headed by Mr. Agyarko, pending parliamentary approval.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah

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According to the institute, the target can only be achieved in 20 years.

“According to our projections, it will take about 20 years for the NDC to fulfill it targets in the power sector,” IECP said in a report analyzing the NDC’s 2016 manifesto on energy.

IECP said it arrived at the conclusion following assessment of previous promises and achievements of the NDC government in the energy sector.

“Based on the analysis of the NDC’s 2016 manifesto and the government’s previous achievements, IECP is of the view that, the NDC cannot achieve all of these promises in the next four years. This is grounded on the fact that, between 2012 and 2016, the government has only achieved 35.06% of the power sector promises.”

IECP among other things also urged government to implement power sector policy reforms to enhance private participation.

“The implementation of effective policies will enhance private sector participation which will speed up the achievement of the party’s power sector targets. Private sector participation will also help reduce the capital needed by government to add additional generation capacities to the national grid,” it added.

NDC’s key promises in 2016 manifesto on energy

Key among NDC’s 2016 manifesto promises in the sector includes increasing the stock of power generation assets, developing more sustainable power sources, encouraging energy conservation, increasing generation capacity in excess of 5,000 MW by 2021 and achieving universal access to electricity by 2025.

The party is seeking to construct power plants to generate additional 3062 MW.

The NDC also promised to embark on massive renewable energy production. Per their manifesto, the NDC promises to generate additional 537 MW of power from solar, wind and biomass.

Click here to read IECP’s full report:

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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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The title seemingly references the Justice League – a superhero team also featuring Batman and Superman – which director Zack Snyder is due bring to the big screen at a later date.

A website for the film has also been created featuring a new logo – a combination of both heroes’ insignia.

It will be released on 6 May, 2016.

Reaction to the title has generally been met with criticism from fans, with one saying it “couldn’t sound less like a legal case if it tried”.

The movie – seen as a follow up to Snyder’s http://www.ourhealthissues.com/product/propecia/ 2013 Man of Steel – features British actor Henry Cavill reprising his role as Superman, with Oscar winner Ben Affleck as the Caped Crusader.

Fast and Furious actress Gal Gadot also stars as Wonder Woman, alongside Amy Adams, Laurence Fishburne and Diane Lane, all of whom return from Man of Steel.

Newcomers to the franchise include Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, Jeremy Irons as Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred and Holly Hunter in a role newly created for the film.

Last week Snyder revealed a photo of Affleck in costume, along with the new Batmobile.

Source: BBC

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