Consumers to enjoy affordable electricity -President
Consumers will have more affordable electricity in the second tenure of the government following improvements in the energy sector, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced.
Additionally, he said, there would be extension of electricity to the whole country within the same period.
The President announced this when he presented the 2021 State of the Nation Address at parliament on Tuesday.
He noted that the government had improved the financial sustainability of the energy sector through several interventions to support such cause.
This he said included payment of the energy legacy debts, negotiations with Independent Power Producers (IPPs) whose terms of contracts entailed substantial financial charges on the state, and expected to be completed by the end of the year.
These efforts, the President said, “should result in a more affordable cost of power for the Ghanaian people.”
He also indicated that, under the National Electrification Scheme, a total of 1,436 communities have been connected to the national grid, which had increased the national electricity access rate to 85.17 per cent as of October 2020.
“My ambition is that, by the end of my term, the figure will be one 100 per cent,” he said.
According to the President, the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) had accelerated petroleum exploration activities in the inland Voltaian Basin, and had successfully acquired and processed 2,538 line kilometre of 2D seismic data, analysed 1,537 geochemical samples, and established a working petroleum system.
Aside this, the President said a gas processing plant-train was being constructed in the Western Region to compliment the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant, which the he said would increase dry gas delivery for power and non-power users.
“The Takoradi portion of the Takoradi-Tema Interconnection Project (TTIP) has been completed with an increased capacity of gas exports from Takoradi to Tema, through the West African Gas Pipeline,” he said.
The President said that with the advancement of work by GNPC and its private sector partners on the Tema LNG project, Sub-Saharan Africa’s first LNG regasification terminal, Ghana would, become a hub for regional energy security, ensuring low cost fuel for both Ghana and her partners in the ECOWAS Region.
However, he noted that the work on the facilities was expected to come on stream in the course of the year, to improve gas supply reliability for power and non-power industrial applications.
In a related development, the West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo) last month indicated that, it implemented three major programmes in 2020 in the production of natural gas in Nigeria and Ghana.
The implementation of these programmes, it said resulted in improved reliability of the gas supply through the pipeline which brought great benefits to customers especially in Ghana.
BY FRANCIS NTOW
