Ranking Member, Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, John Jinapor, has said Ghana’s energy sector is on the verge of collapse following the country’s failure to improve the sector.
The former Deputy Energy Minister’s submission comes on the back of the recent report from the Auditor-General which revealed that about Ghs 230 million is owed the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo).
Meanwhile, GRIDCO and other players in the power sector have come under intense pressure and public backlash following sporadic power outages some few weeks ago.
“Now from what I am seeing, we are sitting on a ticking bomb, the system is not improving,” he said on Monday.
Speaking in an interview, Mr Jinapor explained that ,“If you generate the power, you must fill it to the point of consumption so you must improve on the grid and make it more resilient.”
He noted that the plan for GRIDCo’s operational in 2008 which was to enable them to focus on the transmission system has gradually failed.
According to Mr Jinapor, the company’s finances has deteriorated so much so that “all the ratios are in the negatives.”
“If you look at GRIDCo’s audited account, their revenues in 2016 was about Ghs 607 million so let’s take it that it’s Ghs 700 million. In 2017 it increased to Ghs 715 million, in 2018 it decreased to Ghs 500 million and so there was a dip of about Ghs 280 million.”
“In terms of their revenue requirement, if you discount this with inflation it means that the real rate in terms of what they are really losing is a huge amount,” he stated.
Two main areas of GRIDCo’s operations, according to him, are the technical and financial sides, “because the financial side is what gives them revenue to invest in the technical side”
The MP for Yapei-Kusawgu Constituency recalled that in 2018, the GRIDCo Chief Executive, Johnathan Amoako-Baah observed that the office was losing Ghs 280 million following some reductions in electricity tariffs by the PURC, indicating that the revenue loss could affect the effective operations of the company.
GRIDCo, following a recent power outage issued a statement explaining the cause of the power outage with assurance that works are underway to fix certain incidental problems in the power system.
But John Jinapor wondered why the power supplier was unable to inform the public of the issue to afford Ghanaians adequate preparation for the enrollment.
“Is it not simple, is it not rational that if GRIDCo is aware that it is going to undertake so-called upgrading or maintenance works and it knows that it will shut off a transformer, its informs consumers,” he quizzed.
“This is simple logic, this is not rocket science,” he added.
