US$10bn needed to fix Ghana’s energy problem

Ghana needs an estimated US$10.0 billion investment package to meet its energy requirements over the next five years.

Government intends to increase access to electricity from the current level of 65 percent to 80 percent by 2013 and universal access by 2020.

Power generation capacity is also to be expanded from the current 2,000 megawatts to 5,000 megawatts by 2015.

Deputy Minister of Energy, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, making a presentation in Accra on the investment opportunities in the country’s energy sector, explained the investment requirement for the sector is huge and therefore government alone cannot bear this expenditure.

Government therefore welcomes development partners as well as private investor partnerships to assist in achieving the targets that have been set for the energy sector, he said.

Mr. Armah-Kofi Buah revealed that government is implementing programmes to: develop a non-congested transmission network by 2015; strengthen transmission infrastructure for power evacuation; improve and modernise distribution infrastructure to reduce system losses from 25 percent to 18 percent by 2015; and strengthen regulatory agencies to perform their functions effectively.

“The focus of the National Energy Policy, therefore, is to create the enabling environment needed to attract private sector investment into the energy sector.”

He said that the country’s two existing hydropower schemes, namely Akosombo and Kpong, have been over-relied on for the country’s electricity needs over the years.

Three other medium-scale and about 40 potential mini-hydropower sites have been identified in addition to Bui.

This, he said, is to ease the overstretched hydropower stations in the country - emphasising that more than half of the country’s hydropower capacity has not been developed.

He enumerated supply shortages arising out of historical under-investment in generation, transmission and distribution. Inadequate access to electricity, poor financial health of utility companies and non-delivery of gas expected from the West African Gas Pipeline project as some of the challenges facing the nation’s energy sector.

“Ghana is committed to cleaner energy and protection of the ozone layer; hence Government - in meeting its objective of ensuring the security of supply of energy for Ghana - proposes to increase renewable energy service in the national energy supply-mix from the current 0.01 percent to 10 percent in the medium-term.

“A renewable energy bill to facilitate the process has been prepared for Cabinet approval before it is laid before the legislature for subsequent passage into law,” Mr. Armah-Kofi Buah revealed.