[ 2017-05-16 ]

Minister for Energy and Petroleum, Boakye Agyarko

Future power deals will be strategized – Boakye Agyarko
The Minister of Energy, Boakye Agyarko has
described past agreements in the energy sector as
“deal-driven” and not “strategy-driven”.

He argues that most of the agreements with
Independent Power Producers failed to fully
address the energy needs of the country and has
pledged to employ some strategic policies to
guarantee the efficient generation and efficient
distribution of power across the country.

“Often times I have maintained and this is a
personal view that the Energy Sector has been
deal-driven instead of strategy-driven and
therefore we do not approach the sector with a
comprehensiveness that is required,” the
Minister said at the National Policy Summit in
Accra today [Tuesday].

He indicated that the concentration of power
generation in the East; Tema enclave to the
neglect of other parts of the country has created
what he calls a “load imbalance”.

“Let me give you an example. All the major loads
in the country in terms of power generation is
concentrated in the East; Tema enclave. There is
very little in the Aboadze and there is absolutely
nothing in the middle of the country; that in
itself creates a load imbalance for
GRIDCo...Because we were driven by the deals we
could get, there was no plan to distribute the
load around the country. That is my personal view
as I have observed it. Even now people prefer to
build power plants around the overcrowded enclave
of Tema.”

Proffering suggestions to these challenges, the
Minister emphasized the need to make power sector
a strategy driven place where business men find
their deals so power will be “competitively
procured.”

“We will also use standardized procedures and
documentation so that all the liquidity and
security documentation that comes with power
procurement will be standardized. Investor A faces
the same standard document as investor B,” the
Minister added.

Government had earlier argued that some of the
power agreements including Ameri and Karpower,
that the Mahama government entered into were
bloated.

Government in a bid to ensure value for money set
up a 17 member committee under the Energy Ministry
to review the Ameri power deal which was believed
to have been bloated by $150 million.

The 17-member committee was also constituted on
grounds of other financial, technical and legal
issues, and insisted that AMERI must be made to
re-negotiate the deal or be rejected by Government
on grounds of fraud.

The committee maintained that AMERI in its
agreement with government dated February 10th,
2015, charged Ghana significantly higher than what
it was charged by the Turkish registered company,
PPR, which financed and executed the project.

The Turkish firm pegged the total cost of the
project which is to span over a 5 year period at a
maximum of 360 million dollars. However, the Build
Operate Own Transfer (BOOT) agreement signed
between government and AMERI was pegged at a
minimum of 510 million dollars.

Source - citibsinessnews.com

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