Ghana’s total demand including export far exceeds available power generation capacity.

A statement from African Press Organization and copied to the GNA said current suppressed peak demand is about 2,400MW, however only 1,600MW of capacity is available at peak and 1,400 MW at off-peak leaving a deficit of about 800MW at peak.

Dr. Kwabena Donkor, Minister of Power for Ghana, announced at AEF in July 2015 plans to push through Emergency Power arrangements to beef up the supply situation. They will add about 1,000MW by the end of the current year and provide the platform to pursue medium to long term solutions.

The Ministry is also taking steps to add in excess of 5,000MW generating capacity from natural gas, clean coal and renewable energy sources within the next five years.

To accelerate investments Ghana is restructuring the Electricity Company of Ghana Ltd (ECG) and the Northern Electricity Company Ltd (NedCo) to deliver effective customer service to consumers and to strengthen their financials to be better off-takers of Power Purchase Agreements.

The main power generation utility, the Volta River Authority is also being fundamentally altered to respond quicker to the changing electricity landscape.

The Government has announced its intention to create two separate entities from the VRA of today. A new publicly owned entity will be carved out of the existing VRA to concentrate on thermal generation in partnership with the private sector actors while the remainder will concentrate on hydro generation.

The national interconnected transmission network is also being upgraded with the Grid Company of Ghana Ltd (GridCo) investing massively in new 330, 225 and 161kv lines.

The Powering Africa Ghana Meeting taking place on 17-18 September 2015 in Accra has confirmed a strong delegation of public and private speakers giving participants an insight into Ghana’s power development plans and highlight opportunities for private sector investors.