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The Minister of Power, Dr Kwabena Donkor, has stated that measures to end the current energy crisis are on course.
He has therefore given an assurance that the crisis would come to an end by the end of 2015.

Answering questions in Parliament recently, Dr Donkor reiterated his earlier statement that he would resign if the crisis did not end by the end of 2015.

Mr Frank Annoh-Dompreh, the member for Nsawam-Adoagyiri, had wanted to know the concrete steps the ministry had taken to put an end to the current power crisis and the timelines that could be anticipated.

Dr Donkor said the crisis was the result of mandatory repair works on existing power generating plants, erratic gas supply from Nigeria and non-availability of fuel to power plants.

He said with the restoration of existing plant and additional supplies from other generating plants, as well as emergency ones, the situation was gradually being stabilised for continuous power supply to end the crisis.
He said other agreements had also been initiated by the government to augment supplies, adding that when the measures were fully implemented the load-shedding would end.

According to Dr Donkor, the government was also studying conventional and non-conventional power systems to generate power to meet the country’s energy demand.
He said the exponential growth in demand of the country currently stood at about 12 per cent per annum and that hydro power generation was becoming a minor player in power generation as the demand rose.

He said the country was also considering the options of reliance on sustainable sources such as solar and bio gas. He said the use of coal was also being studied.

Dr Donkor said the government was not postponing the solution to the crisis but had outlined enough projects to fix it.
The minister indicated that the government had entered into an agreement with a company in the United Kingdom to provide units for solar panels to power solar facilities in rural communities and that the first units were already on the high seas for delivery. Asked whether the ministry had weighed the implications of non-conventional means of generating power in view of international conventions on such system, he explained that non-conventional in Ghanaian language means reliance on systems such as bio gas.

He told the House that a project had been started in the Atebubu-Amantin District in the Brong Ahafo Region using eucalyptus to produce power and that over 500 hectares had been cultivated to generate power.


He said another project was being prosecuted in the Ada area in the Greater Accra Region for a similar purpose.
He said the government was also considering the use of nuclear technology to generate power to augment supply to meet demand.

Asked about availability, affordability and security of power supply, he said those were global dilemmas of energy management.
Dr Donkor said even though he was aware that the Ministry of Finance had given some comfort to the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, he did not know the details.