The Energy Minister has taken blame for the intermittent power cuts, while asking Ghanaians to pardon the Nana Addo government for any inconvenience caused.
The Energy Minister, John Peter Amewu, has apologised to Ghanaians over the recent intermittent power cuts experienced in some parts of the country.
According to him, government is working hard to ensure that the situation is fixed as soon as possible.
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In recent weeks, residents in some parts of Accra and Kumasi have lamented the unannounced power outages in their areas.
This has sparked concerns of a possible return to days of rationed power supply, popularly referred to as “dumsor”.
The Energy Minister has taken blame for the intermittent power cuts, while asking Ghanaians to pardon the Nana Addo government for any inconvenience caused.
Speaking on Multi TV’s PM Express show, the Minister said: “As government and as Energy Minister, I want to say very sorry to Ghanaians.
“Of course as a Minister, I am responsible. I take the blame. But I want to assure them that it was as a result of a number of things that have occurred and this has nothing to do with financial issues.
“It has nothing to do with the planning system, but it’s a mere coincidence of events that occurred as a result of contingencies that are unforeseen,” Mr. Amewu added.
He further refuted claims by the Minority that financial challenges are the cause of the recent power outages.
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The Minister explained that there is currently enough power to meet demand in the energy sector.
“Karpower, for instance, can do 450MW, but it is doing less than 450MW. It is doing about 40MW. Asogli is doing about 94MW as of today. Akosombo can do as much as 900MW, Akosombo is doing about 700MW now. So there is still a lot more room to expand if demand exceeds supply. We are meeting demand currently,” he said.
Mr. Amewu added: “People may be off on the basis that there are technical challenges – intermittently; which may happen when a transmitter triggers off or if there is a problem within an area, we may experience some pockets of those things across some areas of this country which I cannot be able to tell.
“But these shortfalls, in terms of intermittent outages, are not as a result of non-availability of generation to meet them. We have sufficient generations to meet demand. So when the power is harvested to the grid, transmitted and distributed,along that portion, if there is a distribution problem, it has nothing to do with generation and transmission problems. That is the point we are trying to address.”