The Ministry of Energy and Petroleum has confirmed to Citi Business News that the current nationwide load shedding exercise is due to the damage to a major gas pipeline from Nigeria.
This coupled with maintenance works on the country’s power plants , low levels of water in the Akosombo and Bui dams have compounded the power generation challenge in the country.
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) earlier said it had intensified its load shedding exercise in the southern part of the country.
According to the Public Relations Officer of the ECG William Boateng, some 200 megawatts of power was shed on August 28, the highest in awhile following power generation challenges.
Speaking to Citi Business News the Communications Consultant to the Energy Ministry, Edward Bawa said the load shedding situation started some two weeks ago.
“we have a curtailment of gas supplies from Nigeria because the pipeline has been destroyed at one point “, he stressed.
Hydro power constitutes about 50 % of Ghana’s power generation mix and the water levels in Akosombo and Bui are very low .” the managers of these two reservoirs will have to ensure that they mange the water levels over a period of time in order to sustain the supply of power”, Edward Bawa stated.
By: Rabiu Alhassan/citifmonline.com/Ghana