Minister of Power, Dr Kwabena Donkor,has said although he has a short period to solve the current power crises, he would work towards the generation of 10,000 megawatts of electricity in 10 years.
“Whiles adopting measures to solve the current power problems, I want us to lay the foundation for the actualization of 10,000 megawatts in ten years.” he said.
The Minister who was paying a working visit to the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCO) and Tema Thermal Power Complex (TTPC), said:” We are not only solving the present problem for it to come back to haunt us. We should solve and even go beyond our dreams to provide more than enough power for the country.”
He called for ideas and deeds which would propel the country beyond the achievement of self sufficiency in electricity. “I mean moving from small generators to bigger ones to power industry, which we badly need to provide jobs for the teeming youth,” he said.
“My passion is to see the country move into manufacturing and other mass employment projects which are powered by electricity. Valco has to work. We need to exploit the huge deposits of iron ore and do something better with it among others.”
According to the Minister, unemployment is a national security problem, which should be solved or minimized to the barest minimum soon.
At GRIDCO, Mr Frank Okyere, Operations Manager, took the Ministry through the operations of the company, including the workings of the system control centre where generation and transmission networks are monitored around the clock.
He said the video wall and operation consuls help engineers to make decisions based on evidence.
At TTPC, Mr Darlington Ahuble, Acting Plant Manager, said the plants would soon be modernized for increase capacity and efficiency.