Government sets up technical committee to address power sector crisis

The government has constituted a technical committee comprising key stakeholders to draft a roadmap for resolving the ongoing challenges in the country’s energy sector. The team was formed during an emergency meeting with industry players, chaired by Chief of Staff Julius Debrah, on Wednesday, 8th January 2025.

In a brief media engagement after the meeting, Director of Systems Operations at the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), Frank Asirifi Otchere, disclosed that the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo) is undertaking a month-long power plant maintenance exercise, which will impact gas supply.

Also addressing the media, the President’s spokesperson, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, noted that the technical team has been tasked with drafting a comprehensive roadmap to resolve the energy sector challenges by the end of the day. This follows growing concerns about a looming energy crisis due to a lack of fuel reserves for power generation.

Kwakye Ofosu stated:

A technical committee has been set up that has representatives from all the key players in the management of Ghana's energy sector. And they have up until the close of day today to put before Ghana a roadmap on what exactly needs to be done and how it can be done.

He assured the public of determined efforts to avert power outages—locally referred to as ‘dumsor’—while attributing the situation to neglect by the former Akufo-Addo administration.

Government is taking the matter seriously, and we’ll do what has to be done in order to avert any difficulty for the people of Ghana. It needs to be stressed that the pigging exercise—or, if you like, the maintenance exercise—on the pipeline should have been carried out in October of last year.

The NPP government requested that they shift it to January 20th to have sufficient time to procure the alternative fuels—that is, the liquid oils—to power the thermal plants during the period when gas will not be available.

He continued:

In about two national security briefings that the then President-elect held with the present government, he asked about the status of the procurement of oils, and he was given firm assurance by the then government that they had put mechanisms in place to resolve the situation so that there would not be the difficulty that we are talking about today.

It does appear that that promise was not kept, and therefore the responsibility has shifted to the present government. But President Mahama is alive to the task, and adequate responses will be fashioned to address this particular concern.

The President’s spokesperson further assured the public that all options are being considered to resolve the crisis promptly.

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