DUMSOR,,,,,,,,,  MY TAKE

Ghana, Nkrumah’s Ghana was hit by one of the most turbulent energy crisis that can afflict a nation. And whiles we were aware of the effort by authorities to remedy the situation, many like me are dumbfounded as to when this will ultimately end and when exactly Ghana will be rid of this constant power fluctuations that plague us. The issues still remain whiles our politicians play “dog and catch” with the situation.

The West African Pipe Line has long been restored but I believe that instance must never happen again; where Ghana’s energy is solely reliant on the Gas from Nigeria via the pipeline which hangs always in the balance and hydro-electric power from Akosombo. The solution is simple; Ghana must not rely only on the Gas Pipeline and the Akosombo hydro power. For that we need more private entities to invest into the power and energy sector.

I write as a Ghanaian who is concerned but also to share my thoughts on how to solve this puzzle that has been a dent in our economy. Power goes hand in hand with productivity so you can just imagine what “dumsonomics” does to our economy especially our industrial set-ups.

This argument of alternative power sources has risen due to the recent pockets of “light outs” in some quarters of the capital. I thought I heard the president right when he spoke sometime late last year about the end of ‘Dumsonomics’. But many a Ghanaian will bear with me that, it is not entirely true. Our lights continue to go off unannounced and in a manner so disturbing.

The diagnosis of the current energy creates the picture that for our economy not to be stifled by a botched performance of our power sector; public/private partnership must be encouraged. And on that, I must commend private investors who have heeded the clarion call to invest in energy. The Sunon Asogli Power Plant started producing “some watts” around middle of last year and whiles that is good news, I believe other measures should be taken.

Now more than ever, the need for energy will increase as we seek to woo investors to our great country but at what expense? I wonder if the authorities have put measures in place to ensure, the national grid is capable of producing enough for everybody. In advanced countries, people turn to other means of producing electricity for households. Why can’t the same be encouraged in Ghana?

The use of alternate sources of electric power is no new to the Ghanaian market. In the year 2007 when Ghana faced its first energy crisis in over a decade, the then President Kuffour in partnership with some foreign firms provided generators powered by fuel to supplement what the national grid supplied to the nation. So it comes as no new thing that we need to look at other sources of electric power.

We need to consider using windmills or solar energy or betterstill power generation systems to augment the power sourced from Akosombo and other power electricity manufacturing sites in the country.

Many industries in Ghana already rely on power generation systems and other energy sources during the “dumso” period in order not to stall their productivity due to unstable times of power fluctuations.

Currently, the Bui Dam project is completed and the last time I checked, the Aboadze Thermal Plant was producing about 550 MG coupled with what other power generation sites are contributing to the national grid. But the question is “Is that enough to cater for the nation?” The truth might be unknown to us but the solution is not far from us; either we use reliable and efficient windmills, solar panels or generation systems like advanced countries door we just wait for the “dumso dumso” menace to affect our productivity and incur losses for us.

For the “dumsonomics” to be eradicated from the very core of our nation, Ghana and for that matter Ghanaians must look beyond the traditional means of providing energy to alternative sources of energy.