The Power Minister, Dr Kwabena Donkor’s promise to Ghanaians, that he will solve the recurring energy problem by December 2015 is increasingly looking shaky.<\/p>\n
The emergency power barges, being built in Turkey to help solve the energy problems in Ghana have still not left the shores of that country for unknown reasons.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”8pTRbSDUBvHu470fURWwJ3mp2fMHnJbN”]According to the Director of Generation and Transmission at the Ministry of Power, William Sam-Appiah, the power barges may take about a month to arrive in\u00a0Ghana, that is if it finally leaves Turkey.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hasn\u2019t left the [Turkish] port yet but it is moving soon,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
Government had initially promised the two facilities would come in the first quarter of 2015 but was rescheduled to September.<\/p>\n
Ghana had contracted Karpowership<\/a><\/strong><\/span> to build two power barges which were scheduled to arrive in Ghana in September.<\/p>\n The two barges are expected to supply the country with additional 450 megawatts of power.<\/p>\n President John Mahama earlier in the year, said he would hold Dr Kwabena Donkor to his word<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n \u201cI will hold the minister to his publicly stated commitment to resolve the electricity supply deficit by the end of this year,\u201d Mahama said.<\/p>\n Speaking to Accra based TV3, William Sam-Appiah said despite the delay, he was hopeful the barges would be in before next month.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a few things that they are being done on the barge. It will start sailing and it will be in by the end of the month or a week into the month,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Mr Sam-Appiah \u00a0said the timing is such that by the time the barges arrive the construction of transmission lines would have also been completed\u00a0 so \u201cwe can get power out of the barge into the system.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, government has also said it is working on other projects to increase the generation capacity of the country to permanently solve the recurring energy issues.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Godwin A. Allotey\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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