Ghana's energy crisis has deteriorated in recent times, hitting businesses hard, with authorities blaming the situation on low water levels in the Akosombo Dam and lack of gas to power the country's thermal plants.
Industries are laying-off workers, domestic power consumers are complaining of destruction of household appliances, while cold store operators are grouchy over their rotten fish and meat products due to persistent erratic supply.
We intend to take to the streets of Accra on 6 March 2015, Independence Day, to demonstrate
The situation has compelled the West African country's chief power distributor, Electricity Company of Ghana to introduce a load shedding timetable to regulate supply, but domestic and industry users have slammed the company for not sticking to the schedule.
"The situation is badly affecting our businesses, cartons of fish are left to go bad and we discard them every day, our businesses are collapsing," a cold store operator told The Africa Report on Wednesday, adding, "the ECG must respect the rationing timetable so that at least we can plan well."
"We are in a critical and a serious situation, Akosombo is being hopelessly run, it's gone, the Aboadze plants are in hopeless conditions," minority spokesperson on Energy K.T. Hammond told local media.
"Of the installed capacity of about 2,800 megawatts, we are running just about 1,200 megawatts.
"It's a very dangerous situation."
Pressure groups have issued threats to demonstrate on March 6, Ghana's Independence Day, while business associations are warning power managers to fix the crisis or more workers will be retrenched.
"We intend to take to the streets of Accra on 6 March 2015, Independence Day, to demonstrate against the continual erratic electricity supply and the seeming lack of ability of both the government and the ECG to get a grip on the problem," a group calling itself , said in a statement.
Local woodworkers also demanded that the government and the country's power producers take immediate steps to fix the ailing sector or risk witnessing a massive collapse of industries, particularly indigenous ones.
But Power minister, Kwabena Donkor has assured the nation that the energy crisis would be over before the end of 2015 following a number of measures he said government was implementing.
"The Ministry is working on different emergency power arrangements to shore up the supply situation," he said.
"These arrangements will eventually increase our generation capacity by about 1,000MW in the short term.
"And ultimately provide us the platform to pursue the medium to long term solutions, we are hopeful that these measures will stabilise the situation."
However, many people doubt the pledge as this is not the first time government officials have given such assurances of ending irregular energy supply going for two years now.
With the worsening power situation in the country, government has opened up the sector to allow private sector participation in electricity generation.
Two options are on the government's agenda – partial privatisation or a concession contract – to attract investment in the state-owned power distribution company.
The Volta River Authority, Ghana's main power generator had projected about $1.5 billion was needed to improve the country's power generation, while President John Dramani Mahama indicated the country requiredto generate at least 220 megawatts every year to end the crisis.


http://www.theafricareport.com/West-Africa/electricity-ghanas-power-crisis-deepens.html

People used to talk about Ghana as the best, but silently I have been following Ghana on electricity and I discovered the deterioration for the last two years, from my findings; these are just my observations:
1. Increase demand, some companies were said to have left Nigeria
2. The supply does not match demand
Same thing happened and is happening in Nigeria.
So if you think of relocating to Ghana, please be armed with your generators....

Please I will post my lessons for Nigeria asap, but when you wash your dirty linen outside as Nigerians, always learn the land may not be greener somewhere. Nigeria will get there,like South Africa.God bless Nigeria

LRNZH:


Since President Attah Mills died in 2012, Ghana has had to live with the scourge of bad leadership.
Woe to black nations.

Increase usage that out weigh demand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I8e3we2jvY

[size=15pt]Power Crisis Will Soon Be Eased - Asem Kesee (4-2-15)[/size]

You need to continually increase your supply to have stable electricity, just as South Africa and other developed countries are doing. Nigeria government for more than 38 years didnot do anything, now we are generating, but cannot transmit

LRNZH:


Generation of what? Google Nigeria's power generating figures in MW and come tell us. It has fluctuates between 2000 and 4000 MW for the past 16 years.

With all the power plants coming on board?

When people talks about all these nation, remember their population, Singapore is just 5.5m people, just the size of Kebbi, Ghana is not up to Lagos......

LRNZH:


Kindly show us proof. Meanwhile read this if you have no evidence https://www.nairaland.com/2073802/2014-gejs-failed-scorecard-power

I will feed you with facts sir

What's the population of Ghana compared to Nigeria?...

CyberWolf:
What's the population of Ghana compared to Nigeria?...

26m and Nigeria 170m

Omooba77:

26m and Nigeria 170m

wow.. ..Not even up to one geopolitical zone is Nigeria..Nigeria is like Ghana 10 times..our GDP is nothing compared to our population, that's the major problem..

Omooba77:
When people talks about all these nation, remember their population, Singapore is just 5.5m people, just the size of Kebbi, Ghana is not up to Lagos......

tell us the population of indonesia

LRNZH:


Generation of what? Google Nigeria's power generating figures in MW and come tell us. It has fluctuates between 2000 and 4000 MW for the past 16 years.

it amazes me how you people always talk of google as if google on it‘s own gathers information and store. Google only shows whatsomeone post in a website. So please...

Forget google and make research and see how small power plants are being built here & there in Nigeria.

Omooba77:

26m and Nigeria 170m

lolzzz
Is ghana really up to 26million?

Omooba77:
You need to continually increase your supply to have stable electricity, just as South Africa and other developed countries are doing. Nigeria government for more than 38 years didnot do anything, now we are generating, but cannot transmit

its very easy and fast for negative news to spread like wild fire. have you heard of the electricity projects proposed and on going in Ghana?? and when Ghana said they will be a net exporter of electricity? yes! its no joke !. even if the effects cannot be felt now . its about saving the future. and that's one thing I am sure the necessary bodies are working on as there have been a lot of PPP in this sector. it will not take a day to build a thousand mw plant.. btw . before some of you start to get comfortable about the news . you should know that there is really no difference in the nigerian- to Ghanaian electricity supply and generation problem. they are both experiencing light outs. the only difference is that nigerians have gotten accustomed to it because of alternating power supply eg generating sets. so its now like a way of life. no one protests it. suffering and smiling . on the other hand. this is something Ghanaians are not used to.and don't want to get used to. that's why you see the protest. it has been long over due for Nigeria to protest.

walemoney007:
tell us the population of indonesia

250m

Omooba77:


250m

and d pple of indonesia are enjoyin more power supply dan Nigeria

walemoney007:
and d pple of indonesia are enjoyin more power supply dan Nigeria

Electricity in Indonesia: Plenty Natural Resources but Shortage of Electricity

16 August 2014 |Indonesia Investments Subjects |Power Stations, Electricity Demand, Blackouts, Power Generation, Electrification Rate, Electricity Consumption, Perusahaan Listrik Negara, PLN, Natural Resources, Electricity, Gas, CoalDespite having abundant natural resources at its disposal (including coal and gas), Indonesia has difficulty to supply enough electricity to its people and businesses. Robust economic growth over the past decade has given rise to increased domestic demand for electricity but the country has not been able to adequately meet demand resulting in frequent blackouts and in one of the lowest electrification rates (the percentage of Indonesian households connected to the nation's electricity grid) in the region (about 80.4 percent at end-2013).This means that about 20 percent of the total Indonesian population (consisting of about 250 million people) has no access to electricity yet and as Indonesian demand for electricity grows by approximately 8.4 percent per year (higher than the annual growth rate of electricity generation) the electrification rate can worsen if no further investments in the country’s power or electricity industry occur.State-owned Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), which is tasked to supply electricity to Southeast Asia’s largest economy, expects that the nation's electricity demand will rise to 207 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2014 from 189 TWh in 2013. By 2022, the figure will rise to 386 TWh (nearly doubling from the current figure).To overcome the electricity problem, the Indonesian government allowed independent power producers to produce and sell electricity (to PLN) in Indonesia since 2009. However, the largest electricity producer is still PLN, generating about 75 percent of electricity in Indonesia. Similar to Pertamina (the nation’s state-owned oil producer), PLN is heavily dependent on government subsidies to survive as it is obliged to sell electricity below the cost of production.Recently, PLN said that Java and Bali (both are important islands from an economic point of view) can be hit by a power crisis in 2016 as the electricity reserves margin would decline to 16 percent (far below the 30 percent level which is considered safe). Currently the reserves in Java are about 27 to 28 percent.This electricity supply problem in Indonesia is the reason why big companies prefer to establish their own power plants, particularly in Java and Bali, to safeguard future electricity supplies. Smaller companies, however, cannot afford such investments and are susceptible to blackouts which harm their businesses.The decline in electricity supply in Indonesia is partly caused by a delay in operation of new power plants. Several projects that have been delayed are the 2x1,000 megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Batang (Central Java), the 1,000 MW Indramayu power plant (West Java) and three plants in South Sumatra that would supply electricity to Java and Bali.Coal is targeted to form the fuel source for 66 percent of total electricity generation by 2022 from 52 percent currently. As a consequence domestic coal consumption in Indonesia is expected to rise to 151 million metric tons in 2022 from 82.9 million metric tons in 2014.

http://www.indonesia-investments.com/news/todays-headlines/electricity-in-indonesia-plenty-natural-resources-but-shortage-of-electricity/item2325

Omooba77:
When people talks about all these nation, remember their population, Singapore is just 5.5m people, just the size of Kebbi, Ghana is not up to Lagos......

Gabon generates 40k MW we generate 2k. Yes, we are a big nation but imagine if we are generating 40k MW? If lowly Gabon can generate that much, why not Nigeria?

arsetalks:
Gabon generates 40k MW we generate 2k. Yes, we are a big nation but imagine if we are generating 40k MW? If lowly Gabon can generate that much, why not Nigeria?

Thank you,but no vandal will vandalise gas pipelines to saboutage efforts..
I understand you,we will get there with privitisation

Omooba77:

Thank you,but no vandal will vandalise gas pipelines to saboutage efforts..
I understand you,we will get there with privitisation

So there are no saboteurs in Gabon and other smaller countries that generate more electricity than Nigeria?

arsetalks:
So there are no saboteurs in Gabon and other smaller countries that generate more electricity than Nigeria?

It is IPP that can solve the problem;Yes some generates,but it must be constantly added to forestall demand being higher than supply. Lesson Ghana and indonesia learning fast;despite huge generation.

Omooba77:
When people talks about all these nation, remember their population, Singapore is just 5.5m people, just the size of Kebbi, Ghana is not up to Lagos......

Talk with facts n stop talking nonsense.What do you mean by Ghana is not up to lagos.Even Greater Accra(which is the smallest region in Ghana ) is about 67 times bigger than lagos in terms of land mass size.The fact that u people give birth like pigs doesn't make u pple better.

CyberWolf:
wow.. ..Not even up to one geopolitical zone is Nigeria..Nigeria is like Ghana 10 times..our GDP is nothing compared to our population, that's the major problem..

You know nothing yet u want to comment.Is it by force to comment? nigeria is just about 4 times bigger than Ghana. Talk with facts n stop spewing nonsense.

OXYGEN01:
Talk with facts n stop talking nonsense.What do you mean by Ghana is not up to lagos.Even Greater Accra(which is the smallest region in Ghana ) is about 67 times bigger than lagos in terms of land mass size.The fact that u people give birth like pigs doesn't make u pple better.

Please what is the population of Lagos and Ghana

Omooba77:

Please what is the population of Lagos and Ghana

Why don't u rather check?

OXYGEN01:
Why don't u rather check?

Lagos Over 21m and Ghana is 25.9m

Omooba77:


Lagos Over 21m and Ghana is 25.9m

So on what basis did u say Ghana is not up to lagos?