The Ghana National Gas Limited Company (GNGC) has informed the general public that the unplanned reduction in natural gas supply to the power generation companies has been resolved.

According to Ghana Gas, the unfortunate situation was caused by an upset of its on-site power generation system. This, it revealed, caused a temporary shutdown of the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant on Friday, 7th July, 2023 from 10:00AM to 5:30PM.

Contained in a statement issued by Head of Corporate Communications, Ernest Kofi Owusu Bempah Bonsu, on July 10, 2023, it indicated that this resulted in about 30% reduction in the gas it delivers to downstream power and non-power customers.

“The Gas Company Limited wishes to bring to the attention of the general public that unplanned reduction in natural gas supply to the power generation companies on Friday, 7th July, 2023, has been resolved.”
Ghana National Gas Limited Company

Furthermore, Ghana Gas explained that the engineers and third-party contractors worked assiduously around the clock to restore normal operations in 5 hours. During the 5-hour outage, the company noted that it made alternative arrangements for emergency mobile power generation units to enable natural gas to be transported to various power generation companies to mitigate the unexpected situation.

“We would like to reassure the general public that the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant was restarted at 5: 30 PM on Friday, 7th July, 2023 and has since been in full, and uninterrupted operation. Ghana National Gas Limited Company’s policy of continuous improvement of our processes, enables us to strengthen our business as the strategic partner of the various power generation companies, serving the people of Ghana.”
Ghana National Gas Limited Company

In light of this, Ghana Gas expressed regret for any inconvenience suffered by its cherished consumers.

Ghana’s power sector on tenterhooks

Elsewhere, Energy expert, Dr Yussif Sulemana, revealed that GRIDCo could have done better in its press release which blamed the power outages to a shortage of gas supply from the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant (GPP) and the West African Gas Pipeline (WAPCo). He indicated that GRIDCo could have averted implicating WAPCO in the outages.

“I perused the ECG, GRIDCo release and the counter-release by WAPCo. I think the WAPCo one also holds credibility. If you look at the release of GRIDCo, they could have done better. I don’t see the need to bring WAPCo into the picture. When dumsor is mentioned, the ground shakes because we all know the repercussions of dumsor. So, it wasn’t surprising that WAPCo had to come back shifting it to talk about the fact that there’s no problem from their end, and I think that was a good move. When they came out with that statement, we didn’t have any counter statement from GRIDCo side…”
Dr Yussif Sulemana

Despite the error on the part of GRIDCo, Dr Sulemana noted that Ghana is sitting on tenterhooks with regard to power supply in the country. He explained that in terms of power supply, per a look at the power available and what the end-user needs on peak demand, they are almost matching up.

“So, if there’s any shortfall in terms of any disturbance in this supply points, it’s going to bring about a bit of load shedding…”
Dr Yussif Sulemana

With this, Dr Sulemana urged government and relevant stakeholders to resolve the imminent crisis in the country.

It will be recalled that the West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo), debunked claims that it’s facing technical challenges which resulted in power outages in parts of the country on Friday, July 7, after the Ghana Grid Company Ltd (GRIDCO) in a statement on July 7, blamed the power outages to a shortage of gas supply from the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant (GPP) and the West African Gas Pipeline (WAPCo).

The shortage, GRIDCo indicated, created a supply gap of 650MW. However, WAPCo emphasized that it cannot be blamed for the outages indicating that its facilities were, and still are, fully available to deliver gas.