President John Dramani Mahama has appealed to Ghanaians to conserve power in the face of the energy crisis confronting the country.
"If you are leaving the home; if your are leaving the office, switch off the air conditioner and don't leave the lights on. Switch off your television set if you are not watching it, so that we can conserve more power to be able to build up the resources that we have," he said.
The President made the appeal when he toured the Akosombo Dam yesterday to acquaint himself with the situation on the ground, against the backdrop of the current power challenges.
Last Wednesday, he had inspected power facilities in the Tema power enclave. Two years of less-than-average rainfall has negatively affected the water level of the dam.
The current water level is 6.223 metres, just 0.127 metres above the minimum operating level of 6.096 metres.
Four out of the six turbines are running and the dam generates 558.9 megawatts (MW) of power, out of the installed capacity of 1,200MW.
Divine intervention
Apparently not enthused about the situation at the Akosombo Dam, the President said Ghanaians should also seek divine intervention to bring the dam to normal life.
"We all have to pray that the Almighty God send down the rains, so that the dam can restore to its level," he said.
Mr Mahama underscored the need for the country to make thermal power the main source of power, while managing the hydro resource as supplementary and back-up.
"We must also conserve more of our hydro to give to businesses and industry, so that we can lower power rates for them, while residential sites pay more, so that we can create more jobs," he said.
Emergency power
President Mahama said he had ordered the Ministry of Power to bring in 750MW of emergency thermal power this year to help restore normalcy.
"If we bring this, we probably will shut down another unit at Akosombo, so that we can have the lake level restored," he added.
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