Arrival Of Power Ship Not End To "Dumsor" - Power Minister

The Power Minister Dr Kwabena Donkor has emphasised that the Kar Power barge as a single plant would not eliminate the load shedding Ghana was currently experiencing.

"It is not the total solution in the chain, but rather when the 250 AMERI Plant as well as the Asogli expansion expected to add 350 mw, the 220 Kpone Thermal and the 120mw TICO expansion, if these additions come on stream, then only can we say load shedding would end", Dr Donkor pointed out.

Dr Donkor who led a high level government delegation as well as officials from the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), to inspect the Kar Powership at the Tema Fishing Habour, where the vessel docked on Saturday, cautioned the media not to be fixated on the barge as an automatic solution to the electricity supply crises.

He did not answer queries from the media on production timelines as well as tariffs but said President Mahama was expected to do an official commissioning of the facility in the ensuing weeks and all such queries and public concerns would be addressed at that forum.

The Kar Powership, Ayselsul Suntan, would in the ensuing days be hooked to the Ghana Grid Company’s (GRIDCo) Smelter II station at Tema, ahead of a test run to be conducted on the facility to pave way for power production.

Already, officials of GRIDCo have completed work on the transmission lines which have since been hooked to the Smelter Station, awaiting to further hook the lines to the gantry on the powership.