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It is not strange to hear and read explanations from officials of government on how the country is being managed. The explanations are louder where the government is confronted with a crises situation. But where a government has a deliberate policy of buying sheep and announcing to the citizens that it bought a cow, then citizens must be wary of the kind of information they receive from their government. Ghana has been plunged into serious power crises. Energy experts have classified power crises into three stages. The first stage has ONLY residential facilities which are affected by load shedding or management (locally referred to as dumsor dumsor). The second stage would have the crises affecting industrial zones and the final stage would affect both residential facilities and industrial zones minus strategic installations like hospitals etc. The current power crises are in the second stage of the above classification. In fact, Ghana is not new to power crises. Our country has suffered similar crises in 1983, 1989, 1997 and 2007. The present crises which started in 2011 are declared severe by industry experts because it took us to the second stage of the classification. We have never been there before!! Power crises cannot be a pleasant situation. The effects are so severe that it calls for an urgent response. While I cannot deny the efficacy of prayers, the current crises demand more than a prayer. No doubt, it lowers productivity and growth because it is a disincentive to investors. No wonder we are projecting to grow at some 3.9 percent (plus oil) in 2015 compared to 8.3 percent (minus oil) in 2008. The effect of the crises is telling on our macro- economic indicators. The cost of production is equally higher under dumsor dumsor as businesses spend extra money to get power to operate. The effect of this high cost of production is job losses as businesses would lay off workers in other to keep their profit margins good. Experts contend that if the dumsor reaches June of this year, some 20,000 jobs would be lost. This is too much for an economy which has already failed to deliver jobs to the millions of unemployed youth. The Mahama NDC government in an attempt to explain this sad situation blamed the NPP government for abandoning the energy sector when we were in power. Some government officials have declared that the NPP government failed to add a single MW of power to the National Grid while some within their camp argue that we added some 80MW of power to the overall grid. Their internal views on NPP�s energy records are patently inconsistent and cannot constitute the truth. THE NPP RECORDS. The NPP government is credited with the development of the most comprehensive Energy Investment Plan. In fact, through the plan, a number of energy projects were commenced and completed between 2006 and 2009 while some were at various stages of completion. The Akosombo retrofit project increased the installed capacity of Akosombo from 912MW (which Nkrumah gave Ghana) to 1020MW. The retrofitting project was completed in 2006. A total 108MW was added to the national grid through this project alone. The Tema Thermal Power Plant 1 was also a product of the NPP�s master plan on energy. It was completed in 2008 and added 126MW of power. The government�s facilitated Mine Reserve Plant was completed in 2007. The project added 80MW power. These three projects alone increased the total installed generation capacity by 314MW. Some projects which were at various stages of completion before the NPP left office include: Tema Thermal Power Plant 1(49.5MW). It was completed in mid-2009. The Asogli Power Plant (200MW), a private project facilitated by government, the mighty Bui Hydro Power project (400MW) and the Osono (Cenit) 110MW power plant. Also, 2 Alstom turbines of 115MW each for the Kpone Thermal Power Plant (230MW) were delivered to site in November 2008 and the project was scheduled for completion in 2010. All these projects increased our generation capacity by some 989.5MW. Significantly, money for the Takoradi 3 Thermal Plant (132MW) was secured awaiting parliamentary approval before the NPP left office. The listed projects, being the direct results of the NPP�s interventions resulted in an additional generation capacity of 1,435.5MW. THE NDC RECORD SINCE 2009 Since the NDC took over government in 2009, there have been only two new investments in the power sector. These are the T2 Expansion project which has 110MW capacity and the Navorongo Solar Plant which has 2MW capacity. A total of 112MW! This is way below the NDC promise to deliver 5000MW of power by 2016. Apart from these two new investments, the NDC has crippled the energy sector by delaying the completion of the Kpone power project. The Finance Minister told parliament during the presentation of the 2015 budget statement that the government hopes to complete the project this year. Under the NPP plan, the project was scheduled to be completed by 2010 and not 2015. Against sound engineering advice, the NDC government bought two turbines for the T3 project from Turkey. Those turbines had no commercial history anywhere in the world! Experts say those turbines were engineered for submarines or low temperature zones and the NDC bought it for a high temperature zone like Ghana. Upon completion, T3 operated for ONLY six weeks and ceased. Government is blaming its incompetence on the innocent gods of the land. The NDC has left the Tema Power Plants including the Mine Reserve Plant idle on grounds that both light crude oil and diesel are more expensive. Under the NPP, we gave the VRA $40MILLION monthly to buy crude to fire up the plants. The NDC can get money for Woyome and all the other dubious judgment debts but they cannot get money to keep our lights on. These are some of the reasons why we have an installed capacity of 3000MW yet we cannot meet our peak demand of 2000MW. While the power crises of 1983, 1989, 1997 and 2007 were as the a result of low water levels in Akosombo, the current power crises are as a result of government�s refusal to buy light crude oil and diesel to fire up the idle plants. We are suffering from the NDC�s incompetence!