Recent power outage was caused by fuel shortage – Egyapa Mercer

A Deputy Minister for Energy, Andrew Kofi Egyapa Mercer, says the recent power outage experienced in parts of the capital was caused by fuel shortage.

Parts of the Accra in particular have been experiencing erratic power cuts for the past few days, leading to frustration and anger among some Ghanaians. For most electricity consumers, they are unhappy with the lack of prior communication and explanation for the widespread outages.

Mr Mercer’s comment comes in the wake of the Minority and experts attributing the government’s failure to pay some key players in the energy sector, including the West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo), as the cause of the erratic power cuts.

But in an interview on Joy FM’s Newsnight on Thursday, January 11, Mr Mercer debunked such claims indicating that “The reason for the outage over the last two days was not generation, it was fuel – gas unavailability and in fact, that was the problem that we encountered over the four years of ‘dumsor’,” he said.

He, however, admitted that while the government did owe WAPCo some $19 million as of last year, the government has settled $13 million of that, leaving an arrears of $6 million.

He also assured that the gas issue has been completely resolved and that power is not expected to go off from Thursday evening. This, he says is from data from the System Control Centre.

In a related development, a Ranking Member of Parliament’s Mines and Energy Committee, John Abdulai Jinapor, has taken on the government over the recent power outages.

Mr Jinapor indicated that the amount owed to the West African Pipeline Company (WAPCo) should not warrant a load shedding.

Also read: https://www.myjoyonline.com/there-isnt-dumsor-to-warrant-load-shedding-timetable-egyapa-mercer/

“Indeed, if $19 million is a major problem, then, we have a serious problem to deal with. If $19 million can lead to this situation, then, we have a huge problem as a country because I thought that a country the size of Ghana and given our GDP, $19 million should not lead to a load shedding of about 600 megawatts,” he said.

He also bemoaned the political interference in the cash waterfall mechanism, adding that this is a worry to even industry players such as Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) and Ghana Gas.

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