The Ministry of Power says other alternatives for power production are being considered to diversify Ghana’s power sources.
The Minister was speaking at a stakeholder meeting on the Energy Sector organized by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) on Wednesday in Accra.
The nation’s reliance on hydro has for some time now proven problematic, resulting in power crisis in the country.
This, the Minister said is of concern to his ministry hence his Ministry’s willingness to explore other avenues such as the use of coal to generate power in the country.
The Minister explained that Ghana has been compelled to “look at other alternatives” of power generation since the country doesn’t have enough gas and cannot rely on the gas pipeline.
“41 percent of global electricity generation is coal based so let us not be apologetic that we are looking at other options and coal is one of the options we will utilize. I don’t apologize, our national interest takes precedence over any other issue,” he added.
The Minister also attributed the incessant power cuts in the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions to a high demand for power in those regions.
“Let me tell you about today’s load shedding. Today off peak, we are shedding 510 megawatts , Accra is shedding 220 megawatts, Ashanti is shedding 100 megawatts, Tema is shedding 60 megawatts, Western Region; 50 megawatts, Eastern Region; 30 megawatts, Central Region; 30 megawatts, Volta Region; 20 megawatts. Yesterday at peak we [Accra] shed, 650 megawatts.”
Credit: citifmonline