THE PERSISTENCE AND CHALLENGES OF A HYDRO-THERMAL DOMINATED ELECTRICITY GENERATION MIX IN WEST AFRICA: A CASE STUDY OF GHANA, 1966 - 2015

Abstract

There is a markedly clear consensus among scholars that the presence of a reliable and efficient electricity generation infrastructure and its concomitant reliable power supply has a positive effect on economic development, and that the lack of enough of it effectively retards the pace of economic growth and development. In the absence of a good and efficient electricity generation system to produce the needed electricity, the sectors of a modern economy such as manufacturing, health, construction, communication, entertainment, education etc will shut down. The need to generate more electricity to meet up with the ever-rising demand cannot therefore be overemphasized. However, power supply in West African countries, including Ghana, is notoriously inadequate and unreliable despite continuous upgrading of the generation capacity. This has had a lot of negative economic consequences and still portends a bad omen for the country. Finding the real cause of this unpleasant situation with the view of getting lasting solution to it has therefore been a serious concern among scholars, the government and the people at large. While acknowledging other challenges pointed out by other researchers such as finance, this paper emphasizes that the major problem with electricity generation in Ghana is the persistence of the undue dominance of hydro-electric and thermal generation in Ghana’s electricity generation mix. The study adopts a historical method, using secondary sources of information drawn from various fields of study. These are analyzed, using a qualitative approach. The paper finds, that given the high vulnerability of hydro generation to climatic variation and the excessive costliness of running thermal plants, not to talk of the scarcity of their fuel which makes them perform well below their installed capacity, the way out of the wood is for the country to properly diversify its generation sources, in order to have a more balanced and healthier generation mix.