The Deputy Minister of Energy in charge of Power, Mr William Owuraku Aidoo has explained that the recent power outages experienced in some parts of the country was as a result of some technical challenges.
According to him, there was a problem with the supply of gas from the Sankofa field and around the same time, gas from Nigeria was also cut as a result of scheduled cleaning of the pipeline.
Speaking on Accra-based Citi FM Monday in reaction to fears that the power crisis which challenged the country between 2014 and 2016 had resurfaced, Mr Aidoo assured that the problems had been solved.
“We had two major challenges happening at the same time which culminated into this rather unfortunate power outage that we’ve been suffering. But I’m happy to announce that the problems have been solved and going forward we shouldn’t be having power outages.”
“We had a problem with the supply of gas as a result of some challenges with machine at the Sankofa field and around about the same time, the Nigerians were also doing some pigging, which in English means cleaning of the pipleline which is a normal schedule maintenance
“But unfortunately, when they tried to hook us onto the supply again, they experienced a major fault which resulted in the inability of the company to supply gas to the Tema enclave,” he said.
Explaining further, Mr Aidoo said the Kar Power Plant was also faced with some technical challenges which have been resolved.
“I mean, all these came in at the same time which is very unusual. But now Kar Power has about 230 megawatts and they are still hoping to go up to the maximum of about 450 megawatts.”
He, however, dismissed claims that the Asagoli Power Plant had reduced production due to government’s indebtedness.
“That is false because Asogli went down simply because the Nigeria gas is what they use and without that gas they cannot produce. We’ve paid Asogli recently and we are really on top of the financials.”
Mr Aidoo also assured the public that “everything really is now working fine. What has happened in the last few days is not financial. It’s purely technical and that we have solved”
He stated, however, that “there may well be some localized problems here and there which are distribution problems that I will entreat people to have patience while the ECG goes round to solve those localized problems.”
Source: Daily Graphic
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