Chief Executive of Bui Power Authority, Fred Oware says the Ghana Grid Company Limited, GRIDCo misinformed the Minister of Energy and Ghanaians about the shutdown of the authority.
He said that Bui is still in operation.
GRIDCo explained that Bui has shut down operations due to low level of water and hence the intermittent power supply in the central part of Ghana and especially in Kumasi.
But reacting to the GRIDCo statement in an interview with Joy FM on Tuesday, April 13, 2021, the Chief Executive of BPA, Mr Fred Oware said the claim by GRIDCo was misleading and added that Bui cannot be responsible for the current intermittent power supply in the country.
READ ALSO: GRIDCo explains cause of April 12 power outage in some parts of the country
“Let me be bold enough and say that I think GRIDCo has misled the Minister [of Energy] in making such a sad statement because as we sit here, talking right now, Bui is in operation, we have three units which works at 133 [megawatts].
“The water is gone down without any doubt whatsoever but this is not an unforeseen act, we knew this and last year when we submitted our supply plan, we indicated clearly that this year, we will not be able to generate as much as we generated last year and we’ve given them month by month how much we are going to. If there is a problem, lets talk about it but they can’t put it on Bui because we knew last year that the supply plan will be what it is and so they should have looked at our supply plan and make alternative arrangements to fill in the gap but to say that there is dumsor in Ghana because…, it is quite misleading and I think you can make your own independent investigation.
Mr Oware reiterated that Bui was a peaking plant and requires just about five minutes to start the plant and supply power unlike other hydro plants that require about 30 minutes or so to start.
"As at this morning, we were generating 90 [megawatts]", he explained.
He insisted that the problem of intermittent power supply has nothing to do with Bui.
He explained that Bui has a three-year cycle and [that] three years ago water was spilled at Bui for 10 days. And when they calculated, it was something like US$600,000 equivalent per day for 10 days.
“Last year the rainfall wasn’t as good as the previous year, this is the worst for the three years and so we expect next year to be much better. These are things which are known and calculated. Now it is for the system operator to say that if you are looking for, at peak, 2800 [megawatts] to sustain the system and a generator number one, Bui, will give me 90 [megawatts] what is the difference, the 2710, let me go and look for it from somewhere, if you don’t go and look for it and you wait and your light goes off, you say that because of Bui’s 90 that is why, that is not right", he said.
GRIDCo had explained on April 1, 2021 that the Ameri Power Plant was being relocated from Aboadze to Kumasi in the Ashanti Region as a move to help use the 250 megawatts plant to stabilise the power situation in the central part of Ghana.
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