The Minister of Energy, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, has hinted of plans to merge assets of the Bui Power Authority (BPA) and the Volta River Authority (VRA) since the two institutions are of the same water body.

Inaugurating the newly constituted board of the BPA last Friday, he told members that “there is a strong thought that since you are all of the same water body, maybe we should combine all your assets into one, going forward, not now.”

Board members

The board, Chaired by the Member of Parliament for Sunyani East, Mr Kwasi Ameyaw Cheremeh, also has Mr Samuel Kofi Dzamesi, Salifu Sa-eed, Nana Ama Tima Boakye, Mr Paul Twum-Barimah, Dr Mrs Rebecca Acquaah-Arhin and Mr Kwame Appia Kyei.

He said the BPA mandate was amended to include renewable energy, “and in fact you have the agency doing the biggest utility project in the country so far but your sister company or your elder company (the VRA) already has the mandate and is able to do that as well as integrate using other forms of energy”.

The minister further reminded the board of the BPA of their role in helping the government to achieve its target in the energy sector.

Key player

Dr Prempeh said: “You are a key player in not only helping us in generating power but also in meeting our target in clean and renewable energy as far as the Paris Climate accord is concerned. Your role in increasing your renewable energy footprint will be very much in the right direction.”

He added: “We also as a country need Bui Power to function and function well because they act as the counterbalance to stabilise our national grid system.”

He said the BPA was now in a position to start generating and contributing fully to the generation cycles, especially now that, as part of the generators, the country intermittently had hitches as to who could generate because there was a servicing of the Atuabo Gas Station.

“Yours has become very timely but you have to manage it for us so that at least in the months of October we will be firing from all cylinders to be able to augment what we need,” he said.

Response

Mr Cheremeh expressed appreciation of the board to the President for “the confidence he has in us by appointing us as board members of the Bui Power Authority.”

“We accept the challenge of being members of the board and we want to assure the President, through you, that will make Bui Power Authority better than we have come to meet it,” he pledged.

Mr Cheremeh said the board members were mindful of the fact that their predecessors worked and laid the foundation upon which they would build and make it better than they met it.