1,450-megawatt power plant in the offing to phase out emergency power – Ato Forson

The government is planning a major expansion of Ghana’s electricity generation capacity, with a 1,450-megawatt thermal power plant and a 600MW solar facility expected to add substantial new supply to the national grid. The two projects, which will be wholly owned by the state, are intended to provide reliable electricity for households and industries while reducing the country’s dependence on costly emergency power arrangements.

Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson announced the plans on JoyNews’ PM Express on Thursday, November 12, 2026. He said work on the thermal facility at Ekafudzidzi in the Central Region would begin in December this year, stressing that the government intended to finance the project without resorting to borrowing. “We are going to ensure that we have our own power plant.

We are building a 1450-megawatt thermal power plant. The president will cut short in December, before the year ends. We expect that the first 600 megawatts will be available by the third quarter, by the fourth quarter of 2028 and the second 850 megawatts will be available by the third quarter of 2030. That will mean that, by that time, we can phase out what we call emergency power.

Aside from that, we want to also diversify our power needs,” he explained. To operate at full capacity, the facility will require about 150 million standard cubic feet of natural gas daily from the Sankofa and Jubilee fields. Alongside the thermal project, the government will establish a 600MW solar power facility equipped with a battery storage system capable of holding 2,000 megawatt-hours of electricity.

The storage system is expected to address one of the limitations of solar generation by retaining excess power produced during the day for use when demand rises, particularly during peak periods. It is also expected to help stabilise electricity supply on the national grid. Dr Forson said the additional generation capacity would support the expansion of energy-intensive industries, including bauxite and manganese processing, steel production, cement manufacturing and agro-processing.

He argued that the country’s industrial transformation agenda would remain difficult to achieve without dependable and affordable electricity. “Energy capacity is economic capacity. It powers growth, jobs, and prosperity,” he said. The government also intends to end the use of all emergency power plants by December 2030, with the new facilities expected to provide sufficient capacity to reduce reliance on expensive temporary generation arrangements.

US$500m for transmission upgrades Beyond increasing electricity generation, the government plans to invest US$500 million between 2027 and 2030 to strengthen the transmission network and reduce power losses. The investment will cover improvements to the north-south transmission corridor, connections between new power plants and major consumption centres, and infrastructure to support electricity trading with neighbouring countries.

It will also provide reliable power connections to strategic industrial zones expected to drive the country’s manufacturing and processing ambitions. On the distribution side, Dr Forson announced plans to install two million prepaid meters as part of efforts to tackle losses and improve revenue collection within the electricity system. The government is also targeting the full implementation of performance-based private sector participation in electricity distribution by the end of 2027.

The measures, according to the Finance Minister, are designed to improve the efficiency of the power sector, strengthen supply reliability and provide the energy base required for industrial expansion and the government’s 24-hour economy initiative.