Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber of Independent Power Producers, Elikplim Kwabla Apetorgbor, says IPPs are yet to make a decision on the government’s offer of payments.
According to him, while the IPPs had agreed to stall their planned shutdown of plants from July 1 to July 8 over non-payment of arrears following negotiations with the Electricity Company of Ghana and the government, they are still mulling over the government’s proposed offer.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, Mr Apetorgbor noted that the proposed offer is below 30% of the 1.73 billion dollars owed them and there are some concerns about the draft document presented to them.
He said, “The offer he made is something that we have to look at and get back to the drawing table to agree on a mutual point for us to maybe go for the claim into our accounts.
“The agreement I mean that we have received his offer or his proposal and agreed that for mutual reasons, we are holding on with our shutdown option and reconvene to decide on the terms he has proposed in his offer.
“Actually there are some material concerns in the draft document we received which actually request some clarifications for us to make a firm agreement.”
The Chamber of Independent Power Producers of Ghana (IPPG) suspended the planned shutdown of power plants following fruitful engagements with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
The Chamber had in a memo directed its members to shut down their plants from July 1 to July 8 if the government fails to pay 30 per cent of the 1.73 billion dollars owed them.
But according to a statement released by the chamber on Friday, June 30th, the IPPs have agreed to keep operating their power plants after July 1, 2023.
As part of the understanding reached, all the IPPs have received an offer of payments from ECG to enable them to operate in the interim thereby providing the government of Ghana and ECG the needed grace period to address the outstanding arrears in the energy sector and meet their contractual obligations.
The IPPs are optimistic that this agreement reached would help yield the desired outcome of providing a permanent resolution to the energy sector debt failing which the IPPs will be left with no other choice than to revert to their earlier decision to shut down without any further notice.
Source: Myjoyonline
