Nana Amoasi VII, Executive Director of the Institute of Energy Security
• IES has said government energy debt to IPPs could affect power supply
• Accra is expected to experience a 22-day blackout schedule
• 77 communities will be affected by the power cut
The Institute for Energy Security [IES Ghana], says consumers will bear the cost of the $1 billion debt the government of Ghana owes Independent Power Producers, Citi News has reported.
The energy think tank believes the country’s energy debt is putting constraints on power generation and distribution.
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has announced a 22-day power cut timetable starting from Monday, June 28, 2021.
This development will affect some 71 communities within the capital, Accra.
The ECG blamed the blackout on the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo)’s maintenance work on some bulk supply points and transmission cables in Accra.
Speaking to Citi News, Nana Amoasi VII, the Executive Director of the institute said the maintenance challenges are a result of the financial constraints in the sector.
Nana Amoasi VII added that the debts could lead to more outages.
“There are transmission issues and distribution inefficiencies, and all these, you will need money to address them, and we have our energy sector debt go up, causing a lot of cashflow constraints for these utilities to change their systems.
“So I can boldly tell you that the government owes the IPPs close to $1 billion. So every moment you see the debt rising with the sector and that cash constraints create a lot of maintenance challenges, that affects the reliability of power supply,” he told Citi News.