Ghana Gas Company has assured the public that there is enough gas for the generation and distribution of power in the country.
The company said it was committed to producing gas to promote efficient, effective and reliable power generation.
The Communication Manager of Ghana Gas Company, Ernest Owusu-Bempah, gave the assurance at a news conference on recent power outages in Takoradi, on Monday.
He appealed to the public not to listen to the ‘untruth’ about the power outage, saying “this is not dumsor. Ghana Gas has nothing to do with what is happening. Gas is flowing to VRA for power production.”
“We are doing more than enough and we are working to ensure that the power system is stable. Indeed, all our compressors are working and we will produce gas for power generation.”
Mr Owusu-Bempah said the company was working hard to ensure that its distribution networks became efficient for power generation, stressing that “GRIDCo and ECG are doing daily maintenance culture to stabilise the power systems.”
He noted past governments and policy makers had focused on expanding infrastructure without adequate and regular maintenance culture.
Mr Owusu-Bempah said “this has resulted in the present situation whereby GRIDCo and ECG need to ensure that power distribution networks and infrastructure are overhauled.”
He stressed that “Maintenance culture is key to stabilise the power system, and this is what GRIDco and ECG are doing to change and maintain old machines and distribution lines to make them efficient. For a long time, government had not done much on maintenance. There had been lack of maintenance culture. Hence the challenges, we have today. Our maintenance culture has been bad and so we were back to square one.”
“There is no dumsor anywhere; we are providing gas for power. Ghana Gas Company produces about 150-170/180 million standard cubic meters of gas per day from the Atuabo plant. Karpower also produces about 450 megawatts while the reverse flow to the Eastern enclave gives another 350 megawatts of power.”
Mr Owusu-Bempah said “there is free flow of gas to VRA all-year-round for power generation and distribution.”
FROM CLEMENT ADZEI BOYE, TAKORADI
