Dr. Eric Effah Doyinah, an energy expert and former Head of Renewable Energy at the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo), has shared critical insights into the challenges facing Ghana’s electricity supply industry. Currently a part-time lecturer at the Department of Renewable Energy Engineering, University of Energy and Natural Resources, Dr. Doyinah outlined systemic issues during a recent discussion on the state of the National Interconnected Electricity Infrastructure.
According to Dr. Doyinah, Ghana’s electricity infrastructure is adequately designed and constructed to provide safe and reliable power to all customer categories, including industrial, commercial, and domestic users, as well as the export market. Despite this, the sector faces significant hurdles, primarily due to high levels of commercial and technical losses concentrated in the distribution segment.
Dr. Doyinah highlighted the following pressing issues
1. Frequent and Prolonged Outages: Customers across the country experience disruptions despite adequate installed capacity.
2. Revenue Collection Rates: Inefficiencies in revenue collection are causing financial strain on distribution companies.
3. Delays in New Service Applications: Undue delays in processing and installing new service and separimeter applications have hindered service delivery.
4. Cross-Indebtedness: There is widespread indebtedness in the electricity supply chain, as customers fail to pay adequately, leading to a domino effect. Distribution companies are unable to meet their financial obligations to energy suppliers and fuel stock providers.
Dr. Doyinah noted that Ghana has an installed capacity of 5,194 megawatts, of which 4,788 megawatts are available for firm supply. With a peak demand of 3,788 megawatts, the system theoretically has an excess capacity of about 27%. However, operational challenges, primarily fuel supply issues, continue to undermine consistent electricity delivery.
“Even though we have sufficient capacities to meet all customer categories’ demand, sometimes we struggle to provide enough fuel stock to power our thermal power plants,” Dr. Doyinah stated.
Addressing the challenges requires urgent policy interventions, including improving revenue collection rates, reducing commercial and technical losses, and resolving cross-indebtedness within the supply chain. Dr. Doyinah emphasized that tackling these issues is critical to ensuring reliable power supply and supporting the country’s industrial and economic growth.
