The Executive Director of the Institute of Energy Security (IES), Nana Amoasi VII, has warned that the shutdown of Sunon Asogli’s 560MW plant could lead to a resurgence of ‘dumsor’ (power outages) in the country.
According to him, the plant, which contributes around 10% of Ghana’s power generation capacity, plays a critical role in maintaining a stable electricity supply.
His comments follow Sunon Asogli Power (Ghana) Limited’s announcement that it suspended operations on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, due to the Electricity Company of Ghana’s (ECG) failure to settle its overdue payment obligations.
Sunon Asogli, in a statement signed by its Chairman, Qun Yang, expressed deep regret over the shutdown, explaining that the prolonged non-payment by ECG had made it impossible to sustain operations.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Wednesday, October 16, 2024, Nana Amoasi VII highlighted the severe implications of this development.
He noted that Ghana has been importing power from Côte d’Ivoire over the last four weeks, even while Sunon Asogli was operational as such the effects will be felt more acutely in the coming days.
“Definitely yes, you remember that we’ve gone through about 5 months of serious dumsor and that was as a result of about close to 600MW of deficit. So, if Sunon Asogli is controlling more than 500MW of that, it tells you how significant Sunon Asogli’s contribution to the power sector is.
“I must bring to your notice that over the last four weeks, we have been importing power, particularly from Côte d’Ivoire. We were importing power at the time that Sunon Asogli was generating and on a daily basis, they do more than 400MW.
“Just that we’ve not realized their impact or seen the impact of the shutdown because of the weather in the last week. God has been favourable to us and given us some weather and the temperatures are low and we don’t require a lot of power for a lot of the things that we do.
“But now that we are getting out of the wet weather, the impact may be felt in the coming days,” he stated.
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