President John Mahama has urged Ghanaians to agree to pay realistic prices for electricity to guarantee a reliable and stable supply of power.
“If we want reliable power, then, as a people, we must be prepared to pay for it. Our power tariffs have remained at a certain level for the past several years and the problem that we face is that at the time those tariffs were set, we were using gas to generate the power. Gas is much cheaper than light crude oil,” he said.
The President noted that as a result of the destruction of the West African Gas Pipeline, currently a greater of the country’s power was being produced with light crude oil which is selling higher on the world market.
President Mahama made the call at the inauguration of Ghana’s first solar power plant to be integrated into the national grid at Pungu near Navrongo in the Upper East Region on Wednesday.
The two-megawatt Pungu project is part of the Volta River Authority’s (VRA) policy to develop renewable energy resources to augment its power generation. It is the largest grid photo voltaic (PV) plant in mainland West Africa, apart from those in Cape Verde.
The plant will ultimately be expanded to 2.5 MW.
Work on the plant began on March 16, 2012 and was completed in February 2013 at a cost of US$8 million.
President Mahama noted that one of the major problems that had created stress for the energy companies was the fact that they were producing power at a higher cost, while users were paying for it at low prices.
He said another issue that ought to be addressed was the need to increase private sector investment in electricity generation and distribution, noting that the government alone could not raise the capital needed to provide the energy that the country required.
“It is our intention to stop the use of kerosene as a source of lighting. In the 21st century, to continue to use a fossil fuel like kerosene is unacceptable. Solar solutions are available and cheaper and so the government will continue to distribute these solar-powered lamps to off-grid communities and when we have done this we will increase the price of kerosene to be at par with that of diesel, so that it creates no incentive for people to mix it with diesel for use in vehicles,” he said.
President Mahama said as the economy continued to grow at a rapid pace, the demand for power increased at an even faster pace, saying it was estimated that Ghana must put in place at least 200 MW of generation every year if it was to stay ahead of demands for electricity.
He said with the VRA developing an additional 10 MW solar plant in the Upper West Region, a 50 MW hydro power plant at Pwalugu on the drawing board and 150 MW of wind power being planned, it was time for the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) and all the relevant ministries to expedite action to finalise the renewable energy feed in tariffs to enable private sector investors to take full advantage of the provision in the Renewable Energy Act.
The Minister for Energy and Petroleum, Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, said the ministry had embarked on an initiative to promote and increase the utilisation of renewable energy in the national energy mix to ensure a 10 per cent increase in renewable energy sources by 2020.
The Chief Executive Officer of the VRA, Mr Kweku A. Awotwi, said Ghana’s first solar plant was not just about being the first or about blazing the trail in sub-Saharan Africa but it signified the VRA’s commitment to diversify its energy portfolio from its current hydro and thermal sources to include solar, wind and biomass, the new “renewables”.
Story: Benjamin Glover and Musah Yahaya Jafaru, Pungu
Friday, 10 May 2013
Ghanaians must pay realistic tariffs for power — Mahama(D/G, Friday, May 10, 2013. Back Page) http://graphic.com.gh/General-News/ghanaians-must-pay-realistic-tariffs-for-power-mahama.html
President John Mahama has urged Ghanaians to agree to pay realistic prices for electricity to guarantee a reliable and stable supply of power.
“If we want reliable power, then, as a people, we must be prepared to pay for it. Our power tariffs have remained at a certain level for the past several years and the problem that we face is that at the time those tariffs were set, we were using gas to generate the power. Gas is much cheaper than light crude oil,” he said.
The President noted that as a result of the destruction of the West African Gas Pipeline, currently a greater of the country’s power was being produced with light crude oil which is selling higher on the world market.
President Mahama made the call at the inauguration of Ghana’s first solar power plant to be integrated into the national grid at Pungu near Navrongo in the Upper East Region on Wednesday.
The two-megawatt Pungu project is part of the Volta River Authority’s (VRA) policy to develop renewable energy resources to augment its power generation. It is the largest grid photo voltaic (PV) plant in mainland West Africa, apart from those in Cape Verde.
The plant will ultimately be expanded to 2.5 MW.
Work on the plant began on March 16, 2012 and was completed in February 2013 at a cost of US$8 million.
President Mahama noted that one of the major problems that had created stress for the energy companies was the fact that they were producing power at a higher cost, while users were paying for it at low prices.
He said another issue that ought to be addressed was the need to increase private sector investment in electricity generation and distribution, noting that the government alone could not raise the capital needed to provide the energy that the country required.
“It is our intention to stop the use of kerosene as a source of lighting. In the 21st century, to continue to use a fossil fuel like kerosene is unacceptable. Solar solutions are available and cheaper and so the government will continue to distribute these solar-powered lamps to off-grid communities and when we have done this we will increase the price of kerosene to be at par with that of diesel, so that it creates no incentive for people to mix it with diesel for use in vehicles,” he said.
President Mahama said as the economy continued to grow at a rapid pace, the demand for power increased at an even faster pace, saying it was estimated that Ghana must put in place at least 200 MW of generation every year if it was to stay ahead of demands for electricity.
He said with the VRA developing an additional 10 MW solar plant in the Upper West Region, a 50 MW hydro power plant at Pwalugu on the drawing board and 150 MW of wind power being planned, it was time for the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) and all the relevant ministries to expedite action to finalise the renewable energy feed in tariffs to enable private sector investors to take full advantage of the provision in the Renewable Energy Act.
The Minister for Energy and Petroleum, Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, said the ministry had embarked on an initiative to promote and increase the utilisation of renewable energy in the national energy mix to ensure a 10 per cent increase in renewable energy sources by 2020.
The Chief Executive Officer of the VRA, Mr Kweku A. Awotwi, said Ghana’s first solar plant was not just about being the first or about blazing the trail in sub-Saharan Africa but it signified the VRA’s commitment to diversify its energy portfolio from its current hydro and thermal sources to include solar, wind and biomass, the new “renewables”.
Story: Benjamin Glover and Musah Yahaya Jafaru, Pungu
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