Features
Those craving for ‘Dumsor’ are wishful thinkers
Ghana as a country between 2014 and 2016 went through a turbulent period because of an erratic power supply that affected every facet of life.
So terrible was the situation that the country gained such notoriety in the international community that the Twi word ‘Dumsor’ found its way into Wikipedia with some countries poking fun at Ghana.
Investors shied away from the country and businesses collapsed with some expatriate companies relocating to other African countries because of the high cost of doing business in Ghana as there was no power to use.
The government at that time though used various means in trying to save the situation and made some gains, it did not succeed entirely.
‘Dumsor,’ which means ‘put off, put on,’ became a major political football for Ghana’s two leading political parties, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), as to who did what, when and how to solve the power crisis.
Today, the government, through the Ministry of Energy, has rolled out measures offering Ghanaians the best of power supply that has not been witnessed for some years.
Surprisingly, some political players are craving for the return of Ghana to the dreaded ‘Dumsor’ all in the name of scoring political points, although the Ministry of Energy has offered lots of hope to Ghanaians to the effect that the days of erratic power supply are over.
The current handlers of the energy sector are on top of their game to ensure that Ghana enjoys stable power supply at all times.
Power generation has been worked on heavily with numerous Power Purchasing Agreements (PPAs), excess capacity and associated payments, government guarantees and take or pay.
There is a new policy direction on PPAs, prudent addition of generation capacity and an increasing share of renewable energy. The way forward for contracting PPAs has been cleared for the best, as there is now take-and-pay arrangements, no longer government guarantees and tax exemptions for PPAs.
What is fascinating about the current move to keep the lights on is the cap on energy tariff which will be denominated in Ghana Pesewas, as well as a provision of Bank Liquidity support for PPAs.
What is amazing is the fact that Ghana’s current installed power capacity has improved with additions such that on March 18, 2022, the peak system was 3, 469 Megawatts and available capacity for that same day was 3, 861 Megawatts.
Upgrading of power lines to reduce losses and increase transmission capacity has been enhanced with the Kumasi-Kintampo section completed and energised to improve the voltages in the Ashanti and Northern regions and that completes the entire 330KV Kumasi-Bolgatanga Transmission line which supports power to Burkina Faso through the existing 225KV interconnection line.
Presently, there is more Bulk Supply Points (BSPs) leading to improved power supply. The construction of the 580 MVA Pokuase BSP, (which is the biggest substation,) and its commissioning has brought remarkable improvement in the reliability of power supply to Pokuase and its environs.
In addition to that, there is another 435MVA BSP at Kasoa, which is the second largest with a productive capacity of 435MVA and has helped in significant improvement in the reliability of power supply to Kasoa and nearby communities.
With power distribution, loss reduction strategies have been adopted notable among them is the Meter Management System (MMS) under which there is harmonisation of several metering systems, remote and early detection of faults and managing all metering systems on common platform and thereby reducing workload and stress of Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) workers.
By Moses Yaw Krubi
There is also the Geographic Information System (GIS) which helps the ECG to attain an accurate asset inventory with electric poles, transformers, cable lines, substations and other electric utility assets.
With the GIS, ECG is able to analyse its network usage, identify problems and risks, like power outages, have oversight about energy consumption, find potential threats to the distribution network and, manage utility asset repairs.
To further reduce power losses, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) under which all ECG business processes to facilitate seamless workflow for efficient operations has been rolled out, in addition to ECG Boundary Metering and Distribution Transformer Metering to enhance energy accounting and distribution system loss measurement. Nine operational regions: Accra East, West, Tema, Central, Western, Eastern, Volta, sub-transmissions and Ashanti SBU have been completed under ERP.
Voltage Current and Time (VIT) Smart Technology for optimising, designing and installation of VIT feeder automation scheme on 33KV and 11 KV distribution feeders to reduce outage time and customer experience is also in place to ensure proper power distribution.
As part of loss reduction strategies, the ECG Revenue Task Force was re-launched in September 2021 to identify power theft and recover debt across consumers.
To ensure payment to all players in the value chain to stay financially viable, there is the implementation of the cash waterfall mechanism and natural clearinghouse game plan running.
There is power commitment on the part of those handling the country’s power sector and that has manifested through the improved grid stability that Ghana is experiencing.
Grid stability was made possible through the relocation of 250MW Ameri Plant from Takoradi to Kumasi and completion of Gas Pipeline construction to Anwomaso in Kumasi, relocation of 80MW Volta River Authority (VRA) Siemens Thermal Power plant to Kumasi, proposal for combined cycle plant from AKSA (250MV) received and reviewed in addition to KARPOWER (235MV) proposal for Kumasi.
Tariffs rationalisation is being pursued seriously as the Energy ministry is collaborating with the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) to rationalise electricity tariffs to make the methodology transparent and the tariff structure non-punitive.
Lots of renewable projects have been completed and for solar power generation alone, Meinergy Solar-20MW was completed in 2017, VRA Solar Lawra/Kaleo-19MW was completed in 2021 and Bui Solar-51MW and others were also completed in 2021.
For off-grid solar generation, there have been generation of some 24.3MW between 2017 and 2021 and 26 micro-grids of 58MW for hospitals in 2017, while the Jubilee House Phase 1 of 550KW was completed.
Ongoing renewable projects include the scaling-up Renewable Energy Programme (SREP) under which some 80MW would be generated. Thirty eight mini grids, 35, 500 Solar Home Systems (SHS) for off grid communities and 12,000 Net Metering PV for SMEs/Public Buildings/SHS projects are progressing with speed.
Bui Solar to generate 150 MW; complete Jubilee House Solar Phase II to a total of 912 KW and PPA negotiations between ECG and Lekela to generate 225MW and EleQtra to generate 50MW wind projects are all towards ensuring stable power supply.
With all that the handlers of the country’s energy sector and ,for that matter, the government are doing, there is no way that erratic power supply will come back to disorganise Ghana, and those who are craving for ‘Dumsor’ are virtually doing nothing apart from wishful thinking and they will be disappointed big time.
By Moses Yaw Krubi
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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