Mathew Opoku Prempeh, Energy Minister
Energy Minister Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh has told the newly-constituted board of the Bui Power Authority (BPA) that there is a thought that in the future assets of the authority and those of the Volta River Authority (VRA) should be combined since the two institutions are of the same water body.
He said this during the inauguration of the board of BPA on Friday, September 3.
“Your mandate was amended to include renewable energy, in fact, you have the agency doing the biggest utility project in the country so far but your sister company or your elder company the VRA already has the mandate and is able to do that as well as integrate using other forms of energy.”
“There is a strong thought that since you are all of the same water body maybe we should combine all your asset into one going forward, not now,” the Manhyia South lawmaker said.
He further reminded the Board of BPA of their role in helping the government achieve its target in the energy sector.
He said, “You are a key player in not only helping us generating power in this country but also meeting our target in clean energy and renewable energy as far as the Paris Climate accord is concerned.”
“Your role and increasing your renewable energy footprint will be very much in the right direction.”
“We also as a country need Bui Power to function and function well because they act as the counterbalance to stabilize our national grid system and so I was pleasantly happy when the Chief Executive now tells me for the last year when we have been struggling, all of a sudden you have more water than you need.”
“It means Bui Power Authority can start generating and contributing fully to the generation cycles in this country especially now that as part of the generators we intermittently have hitches as to who can generate because there is a servicing of the Atuabo Gas Station and yours has become very timely but you have to manage it for us so that at least in the months of October we will be firing from all cylinders to be able to augment what we need”.
“That is a discussion that I have asked my director of power to have a discussion with VRA, BPA, and GRIDCo to ensure that we don’t lose out as a country because Atuabo Gas Station processing plant is out.”
For his part, the newly-appointed Board Chair of the BPA, Professor Ameyaw Akumfi said “On behalf of the just-inaugurated board of the Bui Power Authority, we want to express our appreciation to the president for the confidence he has in us by appointing us as board members of the Bui Power Authority.”
“We accept the challenge of being members of the board and we want to assure the president through you to make Bui Power Authority better than we have come to meet it.”
“We are very mindful of the fact that our predecessors have worked, they laid the foundation, ours is to continue to build it and make it better than we are meeting it.”