Member of Parliament’s Mines and Energy Committee, Dr. Rashid Pelpuo, has stated that the recent erratic power supply is due to government’s failure to settle the accumulating debts owed to Independent Power Producers (IPPs).
He emphasized that the country’s power source is driven by the private sector and that resolving all outstanding debts with power generators would result in a stable power supply.
Speaking to Citi News, Dr. Rashid Pelpuo attributed the current energy sector crisis to mismanagement by the government.
He said “It [dumsor] is not because we have not privatised [ECG] that is why the challenge is coming. It is because the government has mismanaged its responsibility to the power agencies. The government is failing to pay the private sector that is providing the light because the source of power is private sector-driven.”
“The Independent Power Producers, the government is unable to pay them their debts. ECG is unable to pay them. So I don’t think that the issue now is about ECG not being privatised,” he added.
Dr Pelpuo further said, “We have managed it from independence to now. The challenge is the irresponsibility of the government and the poor management of the governance system of power supply and power generation. So we have a problem, and the heart of the problem is the governance of this country.”
In recent months, certain regions of the country have been grappling with sporadic power outages, commonly referred to as ‘dumsor’.
While the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has attributed these intermittent power disruptions to technical issues, some Ghanaians and entities, including the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), hold a different view.
In March, the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) directed the Electricity Company of Ghana to provide a load management timetable by April 2, 2024.
In response, ECG’s management reiterated that the power outages are primarily due to technical challenges and stated that no formal load-shedding schedule would be implemented.
As a consequence of the power cut violations, PURC imposed a fine of GH¢5.8 million on ECG board members.