Government is urging power consumers to ignore claims that dumsor is back due to the recent frequent power cuts in parts of the country over the past weeks.
Deputy Minister for Energy William Owuraku Aidoo in explaining the situation said the frequent power cuts are caused by the ongoing repair works on the gas pipeline from Nigeria to Ghana which is almost complete and power supply will return to normal by next week.
"This is going to be for just a few more days, and we will come to normal... It is not as people have been saying that 'dumsor' is back and we've gone back to the bad old days again, no. This is work that needed to be done to ensure the integrity of the pipeline and gas supply to our generators. We apologize for the inconvenience, the engineers are working” he told some media platforms on Wednesday.
Mr Owuraku was reacting to a statement by the Minority requesting for a load shedding time table due to the power outages.
But the Deputy Minister stated that prior notice was given to the public on January 18, 19 and 20 on the scheduled major works on the pipeline.
"We did take steps to try and reduce to the barest minimum the interruptions in the power supply because we shouldn't forget that Ghana, of course, we have our own indigenous gas that we can flow from the west to the east, but unfortunately because of this work, the gas from the west to the east, that is from Takoradi to the Tema enclave could not also be supplied,” Mr. Aidoo added.
He gave the assurance that gas will be introduced through the Tema end of the pipeline and supply will come back to normal once the repair works are done.
According to the Deputy Minister, a back-up arrangement to ensure the public did not suffer the impact of the exercise, hit a snag after some power plants expected to generate about 400 megawatts, went off.
"The Kpone Thermal Plant, we've lost one of the generators, which is giving us something in the region of 100 megawatts. We have also lost the TICO Plant [Takoradi International Plant], we've lost parts of it as well, which were not foreseen. We made all these plans and unfortunately this has happened. Cenpower also, we were taking 180, a combination of 360, one turbine is gone off losing 180 so when we combine these unforeseen generators that have gone off...right now we are losing something in the region of between 100 and 200 megawatts."
"So I'll apologise once again on behalf of the Ministry of Energy that we will come back to normal. It is not as people have been saying that 'dumsor' is back and we've gone back to the bad old days again, no. This is work that needed to be done to ensure the integrity of the pipeline and gas supply to our generators."
Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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The npp are making the ndc looks very popular saints. If the same problem you are having was happening under ndc and you called it dumsor, making song and lyrics with it, and today you want Ghanaians to see yours as maintenance then you make us see clearly how treacherous you are. During someone's time it maintenance was not part of dumsor but this time it is part. God will strike each one of you for being this dishonest, causing someone to lose his power.
IN YOUR TIME YOU SAY WE SHOULD DISREGARD DUMSOR BUT THAT IT WAS DUE THE MAINTENANCE. WE HEAR. DURING THE NDC TIME IT WAS INCOMPETENCE, NO BE SO. IN FACT ANYTHING SHORT OF POWER AND ENERGY IS DUMSOR, WHETHER IT IS MAINTENANCE CHANGE OF VOLTS, SHORT OF FUEL ALL BOILS DOWN TO DUMSOR. ADMIT IT IS DUMSOR AND FIND THE WAY TO FIX IT IF NOT 2020 WE GO SHOW NANA