Electricity In Ghana Research Articles

Gas-to-power market and investment incentive for enhancing generation capacity: An analysis of Ghana's electricity sector

Ghana's electricity generation capacity is currently insufficient to meet demand, making power outages and load shedding common. The resulting impact is potentially devastating for the country's growth prospects. Traditionally, lack of an affordable and reliable fuel supply for power generation, coupled with ineffective institutions and an unfavourable investment climate, have resulted in Ghana's electricity sector performing poorly. In light of the 2007 discovery of natural gas reserves in Ghanaian waters, this paper examines whether domestic gas could advance the performance of the electricity sector, and if so, how. The results of our analysis show that utilization of gas reserves in Ghana's gas-to-power market is an economically superior strategy compared to an export-oriented utilization scheme. The lack of an effective regulatory framework for investment, skill shortages, and an inefficient electricity pricing structure continue to be the main constraining factors. Our analysis also considers possible approaches to modification of the electricity tariff in order to send the right signal to potential investors in generation capacity, without compromising the affordability of power supply.

Improving Electricity Access in Ghana Challenges and the Way Forward

Growth in demographic requirements, increased urbanization and rural electrification coupled with an ever-increasing technological demand, and the aspiration to transform into a middle-income country have led to a fast growth in energy demand in the past two decades in Ghana. Yet there is a huge deficit in supply and this has become a major limitation to growth and quality of life. As Ghana has devoted itself to universal access to electricity by 2020, the real challenge is in reaching the capacity to meet this goal; and most importantly, ensuring that supply is adequate and reliable. With access to electricity in Ghana been low for some time now with no improvement in sight, there is the need for a study such as this. The paper sought to examine the challenges preventing the progress of accessible electricity in Ghana. The paper adopted a systematic review approach and used publications that focused on or related to the subject understudy. Key findings identified in the paper include; poor pricing, increasing demand and supply shortfalls coupled with irregularities, institutional restrictions, lack of credible off-taker and lack of policy and project continuity. To address these challenges, suggested recommendations include; exploring all means of getting power source, including LNG, Solar, landfill gas and nuclear power, establishing a vibrant and robust power ministry that can help reform and also help in revenue collection.

An Econometric Analysis of Residential Electricity Demand in Ghana

The study examines the short- and long-run elasticities of residential demand for electricity in Ghana from 1970 to 2010. It employed a combinations of methodologies, namely, the autoregressive distributive lag bound, dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) and the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS). Generally, the series indicated the presence of structural breaks and obtained stationarity after the first differencing and were cointegrated. The ARDL results revealed that both the long- and short-run elasticities were affected by structural breaks. The parameters were stable after correcting for structural breaks. Prominent among the policy recommendation, is the need to strengthen the effectiveness of educational agencies by changing behavioural attitude of residential consumers on the purchase of new and efficient appliance as well as enforce standards and labels. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n16p209

The role that Poverty and Social Impact Assessment is presently playing and can potentially play in promoting sustainability in developing countries: The case of Ghana

Humans are growing on the earth. With each growth comes an equivalent pressure on our natural resources, both renewable and non-renewable. Care therefore has to be taken so as not to over-exploit our resources. A question immediately comes to mind; with the increase in the population, should the needs of the current population be met or not? The answer to this question seems pretty obvious. Definitely, the needs of the current generation should be met as every person has the right to life and to be cared of. The current generations has an obligation to make sure they do not hand over the earth to the next generation in a deteriorating manner. In fact, the current generation has the responsibility of repairing the current Earth and handing it over in a better condition to the next generation. It is in this light that I am writing this paper. I will critically look at the notion of what is meant by sustainability in the context of human settlement and how poverty and social impact analysis can significantly help address the issue of sustainable development in the context of a developing country. This journal will use the case of Poverty and Social Impact Assessment in Ghana's electricity sector as a case study.

Conditional dynamic forecast of electrical energy consumption requirements in Ghana by 2020: A comparison of ARDL and PAM

The frequent power outages which characterises Ghana's electricity sector have raised serious concerns among policy makers and stakeholders. The causes of this problem have been cited as growing demand and inadequate investment. The objective of this study, therefore, was to identify the factors that affect aggregate electricity demand in Ghana both in the short and long-run as a guide for demand-side management based on two econometric approaches-ARDL and PAM. Also predictions of aggregate electricity demand based on these econometric methods were obtained to guide investment decisions in the electricity sector. The result revealed that the positive output, urbanisation, and income effects more than offset the negative efficiency effects leading to growth in electricity consumption both in the short-run and long-run. The result further establishes the superiority of the ARDL approach to forecasting over the Partial adjustment approach to forecasting. For all three scenarios, future domestic consumption levels of electrical energy are predicted to increase ad infinitum from 2012 to 2020. Specifically electricity demand is estimated to fall within 20,453 and 34,867 GWh by the year 2020 for all three scenarios. This requires huge capital investments in additional plant capacity.

Photovoltaic electricity in Ghana—current use and potential for the future

Photovoltaic electricity has all the qualities that make it attractive as an electricity generation source for the rural areas of developing countries where technical expertise is normally not readily available. In Ghana photovoltaic electricity is finding applications in telecommunication, in hospitals, and in water supply, all on a modest scale. In the mean time the author is carrying out studies to assess the performance of photovoltaic panels in the Ghana climate. Results from these studies will help in the sizing of photovoltaic systems for optimum performance. This paper discusses the current use and the many other uses to which photovoltaic electricity can be put in Ghana and most African countries to improve the quality of life especially of the rural dwellers. Some suggestions are also made as to how PV systems can be made more readily available in African countries.

Estimating the Willingness to Pay for Water Services in Developing Countries: A Case Study of the Use of Contingent Valuation Surveys in Southern Haiti

Progress in improving the quality and quantity of water used by people in rural areas of the developing world has been unsatisfactory in two respects: (1) supplies that have been built are frequently neither used correctly nor properly maintained and (2) extension of improved service to unserved populations has been slow. Though this poor record is not the result of a single factor, a major impediment to improved performance is inadequate information on the response of consumers to new service options. The behavioral assumptions that typically underlie most rural water supply planning efforts are simple. It is commonly assumed that so long as financial requirements do not exceed 5% of income, rural consumers will choose to abandon their existing water supply in favor of the "improved" system. Several reviews by the World Bank, bilateral donors, and water supply agencies in developing countries have shown, however, that this simple model of behavioral response to improved water supplies has usually proved incorrect.1 In rural areas many of those "served" by new systems have chosen to continue with their traditional water use practices.