Power barges: Ghanaians to pay more for electricity

Consumers of electricity are to pay more for electricity by the last quarter of this year  due to the arrival of the barges
The Deputy Minister of Power John Jinapor says this would come about as a result of  the cost in running the emergency power barges due to arrive in October.

The 225 megawatts power barge by Karpower from Turkey, is expected to arrive in  the country  by the end of September .

The barge is one of the short-term measures by government to deal with the power crisis.

Although Karpowership has noted that their cost of fuel for running the barge would be the cheapest in the country, Mr. John Jinapor says consumers should brace themselves to pay more for fuel  for the running of the barges.

Speaking at the Biennial Conference of the Ghana Science Association in Tamale, he said Ghanaians must accept the reality and embrace full cost recovery.

“These emergency power barges come at a premium; fueling sources are very expensive…So I just want to appeal to Ghanaians so that when we bring on board this plant all of us must be prepared to shoulder some part of the responsibility in order that we can have sustainable and reliable energy”. We cannot pretend to be subsidizing energy and only have a situation where the energy is unavailable. I think that it is better that we face the reality and deal with the challenge so that we can have [more energy]”.

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission in announcing new utility tariffs last month, put on hold a 51% increase for electricity but went ahead with that for water.
By:ghnewsnow.com