Contrary to earlier reports that the Bui Hydroelectric Dam had been shut down, External and Community Manager of the Bui Power Authority, Wombila Salifu has denied the closure of the facility.
He said engineers were monitoring water levels in the dam to enable safe and feasible power generation capacity.
The authority earlier complained about the dwindling level of water in the dam compelling it to limit the generation capacity to an average of about 1.44 million kilowatt-hours per day.
“It may appear we have shut down but we haven’t shut down…If the inflows coming in accumulate to point where we think when we produce power we don’t expose our turbines to destruction, power will be produced”, Salifu said
The ongoing power rationing exercise is set to become more intense as the water in the dam continues to dwindle.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of the Volta River Authority, Kirk Koffi, a 220 megawatts thermal facility in Tema called the Kpone Thermal Plant will come online between December 2014 and January 2015.
Deputy Energy Minister, John Jinapor also confirmed the Bui situation.
”As I speak to you the Bui Dam which has a capacity of about 400 megawatts is not working because of low level of water,” he said.