The Executive Director of the Institute of Energy Security (IES), Nana Amoasi VII, has cautioned that the shutdown of Sunon Asogli’s 560MW power plant could trigger a resurgence of ‘dumsor’ (power outages) in Ghana.
He stated that the plant, which accounts for approximately 10% of the country’s power generation capacity, is essential for maintaining a stable electricity supply.
This warning follows Sunon Asogli Power (Ghana) Limited’s announcement of its operational suspension on Tuesday, October 8, 2024, due to the Electricity Company of Ghana’s (ECG) failure to fulfill its overdue payment obligations.
In a statement signed by its Chairman, Qun Yang, Sunon Asogli expressed deep regret over the shutdown, citing prolonged non-payment from ECG as a barrier to sustaining operations.
During an interview on Eyewitness News on Wednesday, October 16, 2024, Nana Amoasi VII emphasized the serious consequences of this situation.
He pointed out that Ghana has been importing electricity from Côte d’Ivoire for the past four weeks, and the impact will likely be felt even more intensely in the days to come.
“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.
