The Minister for Energy, Dr. Joe Oteng-Adjei, has said that in recognition of the need to spur economic growth and reduce poverty, the government, through the Ministry of Energy, has set a goal to increase the country's Power Generation Capacity from 1,810 to 5,000 Megawatts by 2015, to make electricity accessible to every part of the country.

Dr. Oteng made this known at the commissioning of the Kuntenase Switching station at Kuntenase in the Bosomtwe District of the Ashanti Region.

The 33kv switching station was constructed as part of measures to improve the quality and reliability of power supply to Kuntenase and its environs.

The Minister said over the years, the distribution sector had not seen any massive investment, thus the system has been saddled with over-aged and obsolete equipment, overloads, high losses, low voltages, and evacuation constraints among others.

The Energy Minister noted that it was in the light of this that the government made available to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), an amount of $7 million for the construction of primary substations and 33KV switching stations at twelve locations within its operational areas, covering the Greater Accra, Western, Central, Volta and Ashanti regions, as part of its network improvement project.

He said one of such stations, constructed under the project, was the Kuntenase 33kv switching station, which he said, had been built to improve the quality and reliability of power supply to Kuntenase and its immediate environs, as well as power supply to Bekwai in the Ashanti Region.

He revealed further that plans were in place to construct new higher capacity lines from Ejisu and Kaase, to increase the capacity to the areas served by the station, as well as improve the quality of power supply.

He further added that the supply reliability of the station and the areas it serves, would be further enhanced after the new lines are constructed, because the feed to the station would emanate from the existing, as well as the proposed Bulk Supply Points for Kumasi.

He noted that the Kuntenase station was the first major step to improving power supply to about 13,000 customers living in and around Kuntenase, as well as other communities within the reach of the distribution line.