General News of Friday, 13 February 2015
Source: Graphic Online
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has challenged the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to offer alternative suggestions to end the energy crisis confronting the nation instead of embarking on a demonstration.
It also asked the NPP to not use its intended demonstration, scheduled for February 18, 2015, to deceive the electorate that the ruling government was not doing anything to find lasting solutions to the power crisis.
Mr Kofi Adams, National Organiser of the NDC, who addressed a press conference in Accra yesterday, dismissed the assertion by the NPP that the government was doing little to end the energy challenges.
He said presently, the government had embarked on a combined source of power supply – gas and fuel – to power the thermal plants.
This, he said, would enable the plants to work continuously, relying on either gas or fuel to generate power for distribution.
He said the government had also signed a number of medium to long-term agreements with independent power producers which would soon impact positively on the power generation and distribution in the country.
He said the immediate pragmatic solutions to the power crisis was the signing of agreement to bring in power barges, two of which were expected to arrive by March to beef up power supply, with the rest to follow before the end of the year.
He said with the arrival of the power barges to augment the existing power plants such as the Asogli Power Plant, the government’s target of generating 5,000 megawatts of power could ultimately be achieved to make Ghana a net exporter of power in the near future.
He ,therefore, urged Ghanaians to support the government’s plans to end the power crisis and uplift the economy for business to boom.
He assured the business community that the government was aware of the energy challenges as the cost of doing business had gone quite high, but the unfortunate situation was being addressed.
Mr Adams said the NPP had no track record as far as the issue of power generation and distribution in the country was concerned.
He recalled that in 2007 when the NPP was in power, “it set a September 31 date, which did not even exist, to end the ‘dumsor’ during that period.”
Mr Adams explained that since the 80s, the government had come to realise that the country could not solely rely on hydro and started thermal plants.
He, however, said when the NPP came to power, it curtailed the thermal plant programme and went to construct the Bui Dam, which could not supply power on continuous basis but was operating like a generator which is shut down from time to time.
Mr Adams also used the occasion to debunk rumours in a section of the media that the relationship between the Chief of Staff at the Presidency and party executive members had gone sour because of the power crisis.
The national organiser urged NDC supporters to ignore such falsehood since the NDC party was solidly behind the presidency and supported plans of the Minister of Power to end the power crisis in the country once and for all.