Ghana’s ongoing power outages, known as “dumsor,” is expected to persist until the end of the year unless critical issues in the energy sector are addressed, warns Nana Amoasi VII, Executive Director of the Institute for Energy Security (IES).
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Friday, February 21, 2025, Nana Amoasi VII attributed the crisis to inefficiencies within the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), ageing infrastructure, and financial constraints affecting key energy sector players.
He emphasized that Ghana’s power generation capacity is critically low, with demand frequently matching or exceeding supply.
Nana Amoasi VII noted that power plants are often unavailable due to fuel shortages or forced maintenance shutdowns, further straining electricity distribution.
He stressed that until the ECG addresses its inefficiencies and ensures fair revenue distribution among sector players, the challenges will persist.
“Until the ECG fixes its inefficiency, collects enough of the revenue, and ensures that each participant within the energy sector gets a fair share of the revenue, we will continue to have this challenge,” he said.
He further explained that the inefficiencies will affect not only the transmitter, GRIDCo, but also power generators and suppliers like WAPCo.
“It will be difficult for the power generator, be it public or private, to generate power because they also need to make some input into the power generation. There will be difficulty for WAPCo to continue supplying the natural gas. So, we are in a very uncomfortable state.”
Nana Amoasi VII concluded that Ghana will continue to experience power outages until the ECG’s inefficiencies are addressed.
“We know very well that we have these challenges, and until we address the inefficiencies in the ECG, I am sorry to say again that we will see dumsor till the end of the year,” he stated.
The crisis has been further exacerbated by the government’s inability to settle a $75 million debt owed to N-Gas Limited, which supplies gas to Ghana through the West Africa Gas Pipeline.