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Due to the importance the government has attached to energy, which plays a crucial role in the socio-economic development of the country, it has announced plans to increase power generation and supply in the country, to meet the growing demand of consumers. The government has already adopted a multi-dimensional approach in tackling the energy needs of the country. Many power projects, including hydro, thermal and wind among others, is to be executed by the government with the support of the private sector in the next five years. When completed, the available sufficient power would also ensure that about 1,000 communities in Ghana are connected to the national grid in the next three years, in addition to the existing 4,000 already connected. The Vice President, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, who made this announcement, said when the additions of the power to be generated have been made to the existing power pool, the position of the national average of access coverage of power connection to communities in the country, would have increased from 66 to 80%. According to him, in the next five years, over 3,000 megawatts of power would be required by the country, which would also require huge investment as a long-term projection being made by the government. 2,000 megawatts of his power, in the medium term, would come from the private sector. Mr. Mahama was speaking at Aboadze in the Western Region yesterday, at a groundbreaking ceremony for the commencement of 132 mega watts of power, as part of the combined cycle Takoradi Thermal Expansion Project to be executed by the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) under Theme, �Meeting Ghana�s power needs for accelerated economic development.� Mr. Mahama acknowledged the importance of the project, saying the 132 combined cycle thermal project was timely and crucial to the energy needs of the country. He mentioned other interventions of energy projects that the government plans to execute to meet the energy requirements of the country, which includes the mini-hydro power projects on Oti River, Hemang, Awisam and the Juale power plants. The Oti hydro project, he said, would give Ghana 90 megawatts of power, that of Hemang would give the nation 95 megawatts and Awisam 50, among others. Funding for all these projects have been provided by stakeholders, and the government was doing everything possible to get them started. According to him, the Brazilian government has already given Ghana $200 million to start the Juale Project. The Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, His Excellency Derren Schemmer, who spoke on behalf of the contractors (CCC), and the Canadian government acknowledged the long-term bilateral relations that have existed between Ghana and Canada. He also catalogued a number of supports that his country has extended to Ghana in diverse ways towards her economic development, education and tourism among others. To this end, he assured the nation that his country (Canada) would continue to extend support to the country. The Deputy Minister for Energy in charge of power at the Ministry of Energy, Dr. Kwabena Donkoh, in his address noted: �The power sector is going through some challenges which are impacting on the ability of the electric utilities to deliver adequate and reliable power supply to meet the demand.� The Chief Executive Officer of the Volta River Authority (VRA), Mr. Kweku Andoh Awotwi, in his address, stated that the VRA, as an institution, would remain committed to fulfilling its mandate of supplying electricity for socio-economic development in Ghana and the West Africa Sub-Region. He said the Takoradi Thermal Power Project being undertaken by the VRA to supplement hydro sources of generation at Akosombo and Kpong, has contributed enormously to achieving its corporate goal of ensuring efficient power supply.