As part of its initial administrative decisions, the Mahama government has set up a 12-member committee to come up with solutions to address the looming energy crisis.
The committee is expected to furnish the day-old administration with a plan on actionable steps that can be taken and how it can be implemented to avoid to the impending challenge.
This follows an announcement by the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo), which is conducting a cleaning and inspection exercise on a 56-kilometre onshore pipeline section between Itoki and Badagry in Nigeria.
The maintenance will disrupt gas supply to several power plants in Tema, which typically consume about 180 mmscfd of gas. This disruption is expected to create a significant shortfall in supply.
Mr. John Jinapor, who chairs the committee, said the immediate task of the team is to look at available options for restocking the country’s energy supply.
“We are supposed to develop an implementable, workable roadmap to restock fuel immediately. This is an emergency situation and so we need to break some barriers and some of the usual timelines and bridge it up,” he explained.
He said the committee will engage with the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo) to “accommodate the situation”.
Mr. Jinapor added that there was no cause for alarm about the situation, urging the public to remain calm.
“We are determined to deal with situation and given the calibre of people we have, I’m confident that we will deal with the situation,” the former Energy Minister assured.
Meanwhile, a Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) report has stated that the country needs about $90m to prevent looming power crisis, also known as dumsor following the scheduled closure of the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) for maintenance from January 20 to February 16, 2025.
