Energy and Green Transition Minister, John Jinapor has firmly dismissed calls for an official load-shedding timetable, stating that Ghana’s current power generation capacity meets demand despite systemic vulnerabilities.
Addressing the media, Jinapor explained that the absence of reserve capacity leaves the national grid susceptible to disruptions when plants unexpectedly shut down.
“We have enough generation to meet demand but no excess capacity. When one plant fails, it creates immediate disruptions. Our teams work around the clock to restore operations, ensuring power delivery resumes swiftly,” he said.
The minister acknowledged the grid’s precarious state, emphasizing that generation and demand are “just at par.”
He noted that occasional outages occur when plants malfunction but stressed that resolving these issues within hours or days avoids prolonged blackouts.
“You cannot publish a timetable for disruptions that last only a day or so within a week. We prioritize rapid restoration,” he added.
Jinapor cited inherited systemic deficits, including a lack of reserve plants and aging infrastructure, as key obstacles. “The previous administration left us with no redundancy. We’re generating power barely matching demand, which makes the system extremely tight,” he stated.
The minister highlighted improvements since December, when load-shedding exceeded 500 megawatts, crediting operational adjustments and plant repairs.
“As at December before we took over we were shedding load more than 500 megawatt today we’ve been able to achieve some even kill but it’s a process.
“The power sector, the challenges that we inherited we need a bit of time in order to do that but I’m happy to know that we are making significant progress and as we go into the next few weeks we should be able to deal with some of these challenges bring on more gas ensure that there is uninterruptible reliable supply of power”, he emphasized.
Source : www.kumasimail.com /Kwadwo Owusu
