VRA explores wind, solar energy for power supply

Mr Kweku Awotwi, Chief Executive Officer of the Volta River Authority

The Chief Executive Officer of the Volta River Authority, Mr Kweku Awotwi, has revealed that plans are well advanced for the authority to explore other sources of energy to guarantee reliable power supply for Ghanaians.

According to him, this exploration will include wind, solar and bio-energy.

Mr Awotwi, who was speaking at a Chief Executives Forum on Monday as part of activities marking the 50th Anniversary of VRA, said the authority is in talks with its partners to ensure the project sees the light of day in the middle of this year.

The forum was on the theme: "Powering the economy of Ghana and setting the standard for Public Sector Excellence in Africa."

The Chief Executive reiterated the need for Ghanaians to accept and pay realistic tariffs and called for a comprehensive re-engineering of infrastructure and training of VRA staff which in turn would translate into the provision of quality services to its customers.

Mr Louis Casely-Hayford, former CEO of VRA, advised the authority to assess itself, correct its mistakes and position itself in a competitive manner.

He challenged VRA to purge itself of outside interference especially by politicians.

“There is nothing more delightful and pleasing …than to tell the politician to go to hell…” he stated.

Another former CEO of the authority, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobbey, who was also a panel member touched on the need to achieve customer satisfaction since the customer will always judge the excellence of the authority by reliable and quality power supply.

The forum was moderated by Professor Abeeku Brew-Hammond, chairman of the Energy Commission and a former CEO of the VRA. He also urged the authority to coordinate effectively with other players in the industry like the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCO) to deliver better services to their customers.

Story by Dorcas Efe Mensah/myjoyonline.com/Ghana