News:
February 24, 2015
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has cautioned the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) led government to desist from continuing to compare itself with the NPP in respect to energy-generation records as the NPP has a superior record.
The NPP claimed it performed creditably while in office by adding 1,451 megawatts in 8 years as against only 2.5megawatts of solar power added by the ruling NDC since it assumed power 6 years ago. The solar plant is located in Navrongo in the Upper East Region.
Addressing a press conference in Accra, the Minority spokesperson on Energy, Kobina Tahir Hammond noted that the NPP “conceived the idea for, initiated, installed and assisted in the installation of 1,451.5megawatts of generation capacity”.
According to the former deputy minister of Energy, the party has been forced to mount a defence of its impressive record due to assertions by some government and party functionaries that the NPP did nothing to increase Ghana’s power supply.
He stressed that Ghanaians are fed up with the blame-game and are expecting Government to concentrate on resolving the three-year-old power crisis which has adversely affected businesses and the social lives of the citizenry.
Hon. K.T Hammond who is also a former deputy Minister of Energy outlined some of the initiatives by the NPP which led to the generation of 885.85MW including the importation of power generators which contributed 126 MW, upgrading works at Akosombo which led to an increase in power generation to about 108 MW and the facilitation of the construction of the Sunon Asogli Power Plant.
“So the question now is which of these plants the NDC is bragging from the rooftop that they initiated?” he asked.
He said the NPP adequately employed practical measures to solve the power crisis that engulfed the nation in 2006-2007.
He cited the importation of 150MW of power from La Cote D’voire and the installation of a 126MW Emergency Power Plant as some of the measures the NPP administration implemented when the country was hit by the power crisis.
“We did not seek to advance scandalous explanations. We went to work and took immediate and drastic measures to ensure that in one year the crisis was over,” he noted.
Hon. K.T Hammond who is also a former deputy Minister of Energy further challenged Government to tell Ghanaians the whereabouts of some 126megawatts of emergency power plants which the NPP procured in 2007.
Ghanamps.gov.gh/Kwadwo Anim