According to the Ministry of Energy website, the total installed capacity for existing plants in Ghana is 4,132mw – consisting Hydro 38%, Thermal 61% and Solar less than 1%. Experts are telling us that the cheapest source of energy is hydro, but unfortunately, per the Ministry of Energy statement, it constitutes only 38% of our energy mix.
The Chronicle is, therefore, not surprised about the high electricity tariffs Ghanaians are paying, because thermal, which is very expensive to operate, is rather the largest source of our energy supply. Under normal circumstances, one would have expected that, as a country, we focus on the construction of more hydro dams to beat down the cost of power, but that is not happening.
We have rather kept on focusing on thermal, but we cannot blame past and present governments, because hydro power must be derived from rivers, which we do not have. Apart from the Volta, the only rivers that can be considered are Ankobra and Pra, but they have been destroyed by illegal miners.
The development is having a toll on the economic development of our dear country, due to the high cost of production and the concomitant rise in the prices of goods and services produced in the country due to high tariffs.
After our first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, finished the construction of the Akosombo Dam, he conceived the idea of building another dam on the White Volta at Bui, in the Bono East Region. Unfortunately, he could not implement his idea before he was forcefully removed by the military.
It took years before President John Agyekum Kufuor came to fulfil the vision of constructing the hydro dam at Bui. This dam, as we speak, produces about 400 megawatts of power during peak hours. But for the Bui Dam, the percentage of hydro power to our energy mix would not have reached the current 38% we are proud to mention.
As we earlier indicated, the rivers are simply not there for us to construct more hydro dams to help reduce the high electricity tariff we are paying. But should that mean we should throw our hands into the air as a sign of despair – the answer, we say, is a big NO! The Kpong Hydro Dam, which is just a few kilometres away from Akosombo, was constructed after engineers realised that they could use excess water from the Akosombo Dam to turn the turbines.
Today, the Kpong Hydro Dam is not only producing power, but also serves as a receptacle to hold back excess water and release it gradually  into the sea. But for the Kpong Dam, the current situation being experienced in the lower part of both the Volta and Eastern regions, as a result of spillage of water from Akosombo, would have been worse.
Also, if the proposed Pwalugu multi-purpose dam comes to fruition, which is to be located between the Bagré Dam in Burkina Faso upstream and Akosombo and Kpong dams downstream, it would be the single largest investment ever made by any government in the northern part of the country to address and control the annual flooding of communities in the Upper East and North East regions.
The Chronicle, therefore, suggests that the country considers the possibility of constructing another hydro dam on the Volta River in the Tongu enclave. This dam will not only help to produce more hydro energy to beat down the cost of electricity to the consumer, but also help to retain the excess water we are seeing now and release it gradually without causing much havoc.
But, of course, this is a layman’s suggestion – the experts are the best people to tell us whether this is feasible or not. If the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso is added, the Volta River alone has four hydro dams sited on it.
If in the midst of these, we are still having problems with how to deal with excess water, then considering the idea of building more of the dams shouldn’t be a bad one. It is, however, up to the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the government to make the final determination considering that the cost involve will be huge.
