Three companies in charge of supplying power in the country have assured consumers  that the planned shutdown of the Ghana Gas Company will not result in power crisis, popularly called dumsor.

The Volta River Authority(VRA), GRIDCo and the Electricity Company of Ghana(ECG) have  moved to allay fears of Ghanaians over power crises, saying they have put in place "adequate measures to mitigate the impact of the shortfall."

A press release by  the power companies says  that  there are plans to generate additional power from the Akosombo and Kpong hydroelectric plants, to supplement for the 230MW that will be lost from Ameri plant when the Ghana Gas shut down In addition, the group assured that it will purchase power from Cote d’Ivoire to make up for the supply deficit.

It further   explained that the shutdown is important to enable the connection of the TEN fields to the Atuabo plant will significantly increase the amount of natural gas to run the power generating facilities at Aboadze and improve the overall reliability of power supply to the general public.

It added that the shutdown, which will commence from February 3 to 20,  "will also allow the Ghana National Gas to undertake maintenance works”

“We wish to assure the public that we have put in adequate measures to mitigate the impact of the shortfall.
"We plan to generate additional power from the Akosombo and Kpong hydroelectric plants, and also from the Tema and Kpone thermal plants which operate on light crude oil (LCO) and diesel respectively, while imports from Cote d’Ivoire will be purchased to make up for the supply deficit,” it said.

“Additionally, some of the thermal units at Aboadze that have been shut down for planned maintenance would be returned into service during this period”.

Tullow Ghana Limited, operators of Ghana’s main oil and gas exploration field, are expected to  begin the  15-day shutdown of operations at its offshore Jubilee Oil Field from February 3, 2017.