The Minister of State at the Ministry of Energy, Mr Herbert Krapa, has assured Ghanaians that the government will continue to work to ensure that the lights are always kept on.
According to him, Ghanaians and for that matter, the economy, heavily relies on energy and failure to ensure its stability would be detrimental to the growth of the economy.
The Minister of State at the Ministry of Energy, Herbert Krapa, made this comment when he paid a working visit to a number of power-producing facilities within the Aboadze Energy Enclave, Sekondi, in the Western Region.
He indicated that it is the conviction of the government that constant power supply propels socio-economic growth, that is why it would continuously ensure that the lights are kept on for the benefit of both commercial and domestic consumers.
TRIP
The trip offered him the opportunity to acquaint himself at first hand with the operations of these companies, engage the engineers to appreciate if there are some challenges and see how to work to ensure that power generation is sufficient and constant.
He first visited the West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo), then moved to the Amandi Energy Plant, an Independent Power Producer (IPP) and ended the day at Volta River Authority (VRA) Thermal Plant and its different plants, Tiko, Taka, as well as T3.
At each of these facilities, the minister, who until his elevation to the current position as the minister of state was the Deputy Minister of Energy, was briefed by management about their operations and after that taken round to see the different components of each plant and how they operate.
BRIEF
Briefing the media after the rounds, Mr Krapa noted that he used the opportunity of being in the region to visit these facilities for himself, engage the engineers, understand if there are some issues and work out to make power generation sufficient at all times.
At Ghana Gas, the Minister said although the Atuabo plant is in its second day of the 17-day maintenance, “the lights are on across the country. This is because of the planning that went into the process”.
He gave the assurance that without any challenge from ENI Ghana who are the other suppliers of gas, within this period, there would not be any issues and expressed confidence that power generation will be stable for distribution across the country.
SHUT DOWN
The management and engineers at Amandi announced that due to sudden defect detected recently on the plant, it had become necessary to undertake a major maintenance that would require shut down of the plant in November this year.
Mr Krapa said, this November, maintenance has not been factored in the yearly planned maintenance plan agreed with the IPPs, because it has just been brought to his attention and asked the management for a meeting to discuss the issue.
He indicated that the ministry is aware of the importance of maintenance to the generation and the safety of the plant, which must be balanced with the provision of sufficient generation at all times.
Mr Krapa said his primary objective is to keep the light constantly on because “the Ghanaian people rely on us, count on us to make sure that the lights are on, and it comes from the power generation. We will also ensure that the power is on.”
He commended the players in the industry for their contribution to the maintenance of constant supply of power and assured that the ministry would maintain cordial relation for mutual benefit.
