Ghana Gas Looking To End Current Power Outages Before 12 days Deadline - Owusu Bempah

Government says it will need 12 days to end the current power outages being experienced across the country.

Ghanaians have in the last week been experiencing unannounced disruptions in electricity supply to their homes and offices, heightening fears of a return to power crisis, popularly referred to as dumsor.

But the Head of Communication for the Ghana Gas Company Limited, Ernest Owusu Bempah says Ghana Gas is working harder to complete it before the 12days.

"Our engineers are pushing. We are even pushing hard to complete it before the 12days," he said in an interview with Peacefmonline.com.

According to him an Emergency Shutdown Valve is to be installed on a piping, which is the outlet of the Takoradi Regulating and Metering Station.

As well as a Shutdown Valve to be installed on another piping, which is the inlet of the Takoradi Regulating and Metering Station at Aboadze.

He said this piping receive gas to the station and distribute it to West Africa Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo) and the Volta River Authority (VRA).

"Instrumentation and electrical activities component of the 2 valves will also be carried out," he said.

"Once the tie-in has been completed at Aboadze an amount of 60 MMscfd (average) of gas can be moved from the west to the east. This is also depended on the completion of extended works (Regulating and Metering Station-RMS) in tema by Eni," he added.

Government has explained it has to shut down the power generating plants within the Tema enclave since Saturday to allow some on-going construction work to interconnect the West African Gas pipelines to Ghana Gas pipelines.

The move, it said Monday, is to enable the transportation of surplus natural gas from Takoradi in the Western Region to Tema in Greater Accra to power the plants in the area in a bid to ensure affordable electricity for Ghanaians.

The ongoing project, Deputy Energy Minister William Owuraku Aidoo explained, would ensure there is sufficient natural gas to fuel the power generating plants, as well as bring an end to the ritual of ‘no gas from Nigeria’ and ‘pressure is low’.

“The whole idea is to have the ability to transport our stranded gas from the west [Takoradi] to the east [Tema] to feed our generators there,” he said.