The Public Utilities Workers Union (PUWU) is calling on the government to renegotiate power purchase agreements with Independent Power Producers (IPPs), citing the urgent need to curb mounting revenue leakages in Ghana’s energy sector.
In a statement, the union warned that the current contractual terms heavily favour IPPs at the expense of the state, contributing to the sector’s unsustainable debt levels and threatening national energy security.
“The government must take bold steps to review these contracts. We cannot continue to pay for power we do not use, while the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) struggles with liquidity and debt recovery,” PUWU said.
The call comes amid fresh revelations that Ghana owes over $1.7 billion to IPPs, with major players like Karpower threatening to shut down operations over unpaid invoices exceeding $400 million.
PUWU also expressed concern over ECG’s revenue underreporting—recently flagged in a PricewaterhouseCoopers audit—and called for stricter oversight and reforms in revenue collection and distribution through the Cash Waterfall Mechanism.
The union urged the Ministry of Energy and relevant stakeholders to act swiftly to restructure IPP deals, many of which were signed under emergency conditions and include take-or-pay clauses that obligate payment regardless of actual power usage.
Source: Myxyzonline.com
