Energy Minister Makes Case For Energy Conservation

The Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi, Buah, is making a case for energy conservation as part of efforts to address the country�s energy shortfalls. Mr Buah says major savings can be made, and the shortfalls significantly reduced, when Ghanaians take energy conservation seriously. He was speaking the Italy � Africa Ministerial Conference on �Working Together for Sustainable Energy Future� in Rome, Italy. According to Mr Buah, the Government has decided to freely distribute one million automatic timer switches to users of deep freezers and large refrigerators. �The timers will be programmed to switch off connected loads for eight hours from 6pm to 2am. This is expected to reduce load by 200 � 250MW daily�, he said. To this end, the Energy Minister pointed out that the Ministry will collaborate with its agencies to continue to �intensify public awareness campaign on the need to conserve energy in our homes and work places� Touching on employment creation, Mr Buah said the Government will continue to utilize the opportunities offered by the oil and gas sector to create jobs, especially for the youth. According to him, Ghana�s growth and development can only proceed unhindered if energy supply infrastructure, capacity and services are well ahead of demand. Mr Buah said �it is therefore the policy objective of the Government to restore in full to Ghana's energy sector this leadership position so that the sector can better serve our industries and citizens and in addition also support our neighbours� in the sub-region