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Days of cheap electricity over - Energy Minister
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanadot

The Energy Minister Dr Joe Oteng-Adjei Minister the days of cheap electricity are over.
Speaking at a sod-cutting ceremony for the commencement of work on a new power plant near Takoradi, Dr Oteng-Adjei said Ghanaians must appreciate the need to pay "realistic" prices for electricity.

The minister said a large amount of thermal energy – which is produced at a higher cost – is required to produce electricity and that the government would be unable to sustain the system with the low electricity tariffs that the country currently pays, Takoradi-based Radio Max reporter Kwaku Owusu-Peprah said.

“He said it is important for Ghanaians across the country to consider and to make it a point to pay realistic prices for electricity that we enjoy in the country so that there can be an expansion of electricity to the whole of the country,” Owusu-Peprah reported.

The minister’s comment, according to him, signaled a possible increase in the prices electricity.

It, however, comes after a recent increase in fuel prices which was greeted with enormous dissatisfaction across the country.

Meanwhile the plant which was commissioned in Takoradi must produce some 132 megawatts of electricity, officials have said.

The $185-million project is set to start soon to support and will be powered by gas from the West Africa Gas Pipeline project.

Ghanadot