I�ll Work To Resolve 'Dumsor'...It'll Be Solved "Once And Permanently" - Prez Mahama Assures

President John Dramani Mahama has disclosed that 76% of the Ghanaian population has access to electricity, but his administration's target is to grow that figure to at least 80% in the coming years when ongoing projects are completed. He hopes at least 5000 megawatts will be added to the current supply when everything pans out successfully. Accepting responsibility for the country's current erratic and unreliable power supply, President Mahama however vowed to "resolve this problem once and permanently". He was addressing a gathering of Ghanaian nationals living in Germany Tuesday, January 20, 2015 as part of his visit to that country. The meeting included traditional leaders, business executives, students, Ghanaian professionals, children of Ghanaians living in Germany some of whom are now Germans of Ghanaian Origin and a number of friends of Ghana. The country has been battling with long hours of power outages, which has affected both Industry and domestic consumers. They (consumers) have had to contend with a load management schedule due to a 500-Megawatt production deficit. But President Mahama explained that a number of factors have conspired to plunge the nation into the current crisis, known locally as �dumsor�, and cited the irregular gas supply from the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGPco) as having played a major role in the whole saga. �You can�t plan with the gas from the West Africa Gas Pipeline,� he said. He bemoaned that a number of production plants that rely on gas, to be powered by gas from WAGPco, had to shut down due to the unreliability of gas from Nigeria. ��We were assured to get 120 million standard cubic feet of gas so we built several plants in the Tema enclave that run only on gas....WAGPco has not been as reliable as we had hope so we cannot even plan,� he stated. He also pointed out that demand for electricity as a result of an increase in population has also compounded the problem, and added that the Akosombo hydroelectric dam is also not generating power at full capacity as only four of the six units are in operation. The other two units have been shut down due to low water level in the Volta lake � a consequence of poor rainfall. �The power factor and the demand for power continue to grow exponentially [and] so every government must add in as much generation as possible,� President Mahama said. Irrespective of these challenges, he said, plans are underway towards resolving the deficit with the production of between 300 and 350 million standard cubic feet of gas to feed the various production plants that rely on gas. He said while Ghana can get 150 million standard cubic feet of gas from the Jubilee oil field in the Western region, an additional 150 to 180 million standard cubic feet of gas is expected from the ENI Sankafo field, of which the contract will be signed on January 27 2015. "Potentially we can get 150 million standard cubic feet from the Jubilee field, we are developing the TEIN field which will come on stream in 2016 and that again can provide us with between 50-80 million standard cubic feet...So going forward we are looking at about between 300-350 million standard cubic feet which will be very important in generating power and ensuring energy security for us... �I accept responsibility for it and I will work to resolve it,� he told the Ghanaian Community at the meeting.