Do We Need Electricity Power Barges To Solve Dumsor?

It is often said, a pregnant goat visits the market square only if there is a pregnant problem facing her. I’ve for sometime now been thinking about the devil that has visited our motherland dressed in a shirt inscribed on it; DUMSOR. This devil seems to have penetrated our nation, spreading like wild fire and darkening every household it visits. The visit of the devil nauseates every right thinking brain in our motherland; though his continues existence appeases the YAANOM group. Well, that’s understandable! They’re desperate for political power.

The purpose(s) of this writeup is not to condemn YAANOM group for taking solace in the DUMSOR. I know what you were thinking! The ultimate aim of this piece is to attempt answering the question; do we need power barges?

There’s absolutely no doubt, that Ghana’s economic growth largely depend on reliable and sustainable electricity supply, aimed at satisfying households, industries and institutional demands. Electricity is a basic necessity just like water and any other basic necessity. Ghana cannot survive in our quest to compete with the rest of the world; if electricity supply fluctuates and for that matter treated as a luxury.

There have been crises and difficulties in our power generation. These challenges, by history, aren’t new. We have been here before! We were here in 1983, 1998, 2007 and 2014/2015. Of course this is not new! Where have we gone wrong?

Our country is well endowed with adequate and reliable natural resources that have the potentials of feeding us with enough electricity power, if well utilized. Apart from the many water bodies for hydro power, Ghana is blessed with enough sun-light, wind, nuclear and atomic prospects, waste energy, etc. Have we failed to think as a people? Yes, we can be disappointed in ourselves as a people, if we’re unconcerned about the reasoning of technocratic brains, which we pay to think outside-the-box in our technical universities reduces themselves to political ridicule.

Our current energy crises, christened as DUMSOR is described as one of the worse to ever occur to us. This has become a burden on leadership and government, prompting all sought of emergency alternatives to solve the canker. Of course, emergency problems require emergency solutions, but, in the case of the current DUMSOR; are power barges the only solution? Over the years, Ghana has built enough power generation plants, which if well utilized can satisfy us in both peak and off-peak seasons.

It is estimated, that we have a generation capacity of 2,843.5 Megawatts of power, with of about 2,300 Megawatts peak demand. If all generation plants are fully activated and utilized, Ghana may be enjoying an excess supply of about 500 Megawatts of power. Interesting!

The most important questions to ask at this critical moment of our national life are: what is wrong with all our generation plants: Why can’t we activate all the generation plants: Who’s responsible for these messes: Why is this happening to us: Who should be blamed? A correct attempt to these questions may partly heap a sigh of relieve on the Ghanaian people.

The amount of money currently invested to acquire power barges would’ve been well utilized; if it was directed at revamping or activating some of the dormant generation plants. The two power barges are estimated to support our energy demand with only about 500 Megawatts of power.

This is ridiculous! Bui power plants have the potentials to generate 400 Megawatts of power: Tapco power plant can generate 330 Megawatts of power: Akosombo power plants can generate 1,020 Megawatts of power: Tico power plant can generate 220 Megawatts of power. Now, of what use have 500 Megawatts of power from emergency barges, if all the above plants are 100% functional? This is simply a misplaced priority!

We don’t need power barges to fix DUMSOR. All we need is to fix the already existing plants and ensure regular maintenance and repairs. That is what we need!

It appears Ghanaians have ignored the pain of what DUMSOR has caused us, by reducing the whole pain into an idiosyncratic political debate of who is more saint than the other. DUMSOR is neither an NDC or NPP problem. It is a Ghanaian problem and must be tackled as such. We must shy away from the shallow opportunism of making political capital out of a worse situation, such as DUMSOR. It is my hope and prayer that we get out of this mess.

Long live Ghana!!!