Ishmael Ackah has highlighted a series of energy-sector reforms and regulatory interventions undertaken during his five years of public service, pointing to changes in electricity tariffs, power-purchase agreements, sector financing, cybersecurity and battery energy storage as key areas in which Ghana’s energy architecture has evolved.
In a reflection on his last month at the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition, Dr. Ackah thanked successive ministers, colleagues and institutional partners for the opportunity to serve, while outlining some of the policy initiatives he said he helped lead or contribute to during his time in the sector.
His account provides a useful snapshot of an energy sector undergoing reforms on several fronts simultaneously.
While public discussion of Ghana’s energy challenges often centres on electricity tariffs, generation costs and the financial obligations of the power sector, the initiatives cited by Dr. Ackah point to a wider reform agenda involving how electricity costs are allocated, how power contracts are negotiated, how sector revenues are distributed, how critical infrastructure is protected and how new technologies are procured.
The common thread is an attempt to improve the efficiency of a sector whose financial pressures have increasingly become a burden on public finances.
Rebalancing Electricity Costs For Businesses
One of the areas Dr. Ackah identified was the treatment of electricity consumers, particularly small and medium-scale businesses.
He said that over the past five years, he worked with others to ensure that small and medium-scale enterprises were not effectively subsidising residential electricity consumers through the tariff structure.
The issue is significant because electricity pricing has implications beyond household affordability. For businesses, electricity is a production input, and persistent increases in power costs can feed directly into operating expenses, product prices and competitiveness.
Small and medium-sized businesses can be particularly exposed because they generally have less capacity than larger industrial consumers to absorb increases in energy costs or invest in alternative power sources. Dr. Ackah said the work was intended to reduce that burden and make businesses more cost-competitive.
The intervention illustrates a broader question in electricity regulation: who ultimately bears the cost of maintaining the power system?
Tariff structures are not merely accounting mechanisms. They determine how the financial requirements of generation, transmission and distribution are allocated across different categories of consumers.
When tariffs do not accurately reflect the cost and consumption characteristics of different consumer groups, cross-subsidisation can emerge.
While some degree of cross-subsidy can be a deliberate social-policy choice, excessive or poorly structured cross-subsidisation can weaken the competitiveness of productive users.
Dr. Ackah’s account suggests that addressing this issue formed part of the broader effort to make electricity pricing more economically sustainable.
Reforming The Cash Waterfall Mechanism
Another major area he highlighted was Ghana’s cash waterfall mechanism.
The cash waterfall is central to the financial architecture of the electricity supply chain because it determines how money collected from electricity consumers is distributed among the various entities that provide generation, transmission and other services.
Ghana’s power sector has historically faced a difficult mismatch between the amount of revenue generated from electricity sales and the obligations owed across the value chain.
When collections are insufficient, payment arrears can accumulate between distribution companies, generators and other participants.
Those arrears can eventually require government intervention, creating a fiscal burden while also affecting the financial health of energy companies.
Dr. Ackah said he led the 2023 Presidential Committee that redeveloped the cash waterfall mechanism, with the revised arrangement becoming more inclusive through the addition of representatives of Independent Power Producers.
That change is important because IPPs are significant participants in Ghana’s generation market and depend on predictable payment arrangements to maintain their operations and meet their own financial obligations.
“I chaired the 2023 Presidential Committee that redeveloped the cash waterfall mechanism, making it more inclusive by adding representatives of IPPs.”
Dr Ishmael Ackah stated.
The broader significance of the reform is therefore institutional as much as financial.
A functioning electricity market requires not only enough generation capacity but also a payment system that allows participants throughout the value chain to remain financially viable.
Cutting Power Contract Costs
Dr. Ackah also pointed to Ghana’s renegotiation of power-purchase agreements as another major intervention.
According to his account, he was part of the technical team involved in renegotiating Ghana’s PPAs, which he said generated US$250 million in savings.
He also said the process contributed to a reduction in renewable-energy tariffs from an average of 18 cents to 6 cents.
These figures, as presented by Dr. Ackah, illustrate the financial significance of the terms under which Ghana procures electricity.
Power-purchase agreements establish the commercial framework between electricity generators and buyers, including the price and other obligations attached to electricity supplied over the life of a contract.
Poorly structured or expensive agreements can become a long-term financial obligation for the electricity sector.
Conversely, more competitive procurement and commercially sustainable contracts can reduce pressure on the cost of electricity supply.
The issue becomes particularly important as Ghana attempts to expand renewable energy.
Renewables can reduce exposure to fuel-price volatility, but the economics of renewable generation still depend heavily on procurement costs, financing conditions, technology prices and contractual structures.
Reducing the cost of renewable electricity therefore matters not only for Ghana’s transition objectives but also for the financial sustainability of the power sector.
The reported movement from an average of 18 cents to 6 cents, if sustained across relevant procurement arrangements, represents the kind of cost difference that can materially affect the economics of future renewable deployment.
Securing A More Digital Energy System
The reform agenda described by Dr. Ackah was not limited to financial issues.
He also said he led a technical team that worked with the Cyber Security Authority to develop cybersecurity infrastructure for the energy sector.
This is becoming an increasingly important consideration as electricity systems become more digital.
Modern power systems depend on digital technologies for monitoring, communications, control systems, metering, dispatch and network management.
That digital dependence creates new vulnerabilities alongside the efficiency gains that technology provides.
A cyberattack affecting critical electricity infrastructure could potentially disrupt operations, compromise sensitive information or interfere with systems responsible for managing the power network.
For Ghana, strengthening cybersecurity is consequently becoming part of energy security itself.
The development of dedicated cybersecurity infrastructure for the energy sector reflects an understanding that reliability is no longer purely an engineering question involving transformers, substations and transmission lines.
The resilience of the electricity system increasingly depends on both its physical and digital infrastructure.
This becomes even more relevant as Ghana expands smart-grid technologies, digital metering, automated systems and data-driven electricity management.
Opening The Door To Battery Storage
Dr. Ackah also identified battery energy storage as another important development during his tenure.
Working under the Energy Commission’s Acting Executive Secretary, Adwoa Serwaa Bondzie, he said he was part of the team that concluded Ghana’s first open and competitive procurement for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS).
That development is significant because storage is becoming increasingly important to countries seeking to increase solar generation.
Solar power is inherently variable: production rises during daylight hours and falls when the sun sets. Electricity demand, however, does not necessarily follow the same pattern.
Battery storage can help bridge that mismatch by storing electricity when generation exceeds immediate demand and making it available when demand rises or renewable output declines.
For Ghana, the technology could become particularly relevant as the country seeks to increase renewable-energy penetration while maintaining grid reliability.
But storage also represents a new category of infrastructure that requires appropriate procurement mechanisms, technical standards and commercial models.
The reference to an open and competitive procurement process is therefore notable because the way Ghana acquires storage capacity will influence the eventual cost and efficiency of integrating batteries into the power system.
The Energy Compact And Sector Reform
Dr. Ackah further said he led a team responsible for developing Ghana’s Energy Compact, describing it as the third phase of the country’s Energy Sector reform programme.
The significance of such a framework lies in its ability to bring multiple reform priorities into a coordinated structure.
Ghana’s energy challenges are interconnected.
Ghana’s strategic energy
Financial weaknesses in distribution affect the ability to pay generators. Generator payment challenges affect the wider electricity value chain. High generation costs influence tariffs. Tariffs affect consumers and businesses.
Meanwhile, investment in new generation requires confidence that the sector’s institutions and payment mechanisms can support long-term contracts.
A reform programme that treats these issues separately risks solving one problem while creating pressure somewhere else.
The Energy Compact approach, as described by Dr. Ackah, represents an attempt to address these structural questions within a broader reform framework.
Strengthening PURC’s Institutional Infrastructure
Dr. Ackah also reflected on his work with the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), highlighting several institutional developments under the board chaired by Mr. Ebo Quagrainie.
Among these, he cited the construction of a new headquarters for the regulator, approval of a net-metering methodology and the establishment of a Centre of Excellence at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration.
These developments address different dimensions of energy regulation.
Net metering, for example, is relevant to the growing participation of consumers who generate electricity from distributed renewable systems such as rooftop solar.
As distributed generation expands, regulators need mechanisms governing how electricity generated by consumers interacts with the distribution network, including how excess electricity is accounted for.
A clear methodology can therefore help create a more predictable environment for distributed renewable-energy investment while giving utilities a framework for managing electricity flows.
The Centre of Excellence, meanwhile, speaks to institutional capacity and knowledge development, an increasingly important requirement as energy regulation becomes more technically demanding.
What The Reform Record Reveals
Taken together, the initiatives highlighted by Dr. Ackah reveal an energy-sector reform agenda that extends well beyond the headline question of electricity tariffs.
They encompass the economics of electricity consumption, the financial flows supporting the power market, the cost of generation contracts, renewable-energy procurement, cybersecurity and emerging storage technologies.
That breadth matters because Ghana’s energy problem has never been simply a shortage of electricity.
The country has built substantial generation capacity over the years, yet financial constraints, collection challenges, contractual obligations and infrastructure limitations have repeatedly placed pressure on the sector.
The challenge is therefore increasingly one of system efficiency.
How much does Ghana pay to generate electricity?
How effectively is revenue collected?
How is the money distributed?
What contractual obligations has the state assumed?
How much of the electricity generated ultimately reaches paying consumers?
And how effectively can new technologies such as solar and battery storage be incorporated without creating new financial or operational vulnerabilities?
These questions sit at the centre of the reform initiatives Dr. Ackah has highlighted.
His departure from the Ministry therefore provides an opportunity to look beyond the individual milestones and consider the larger reform challenge facing Ghana’s energy sector.
Reform Must Translate Into Durable Gains
The real test for these interventions will ultimately be their durability.
A cheaper PPA is valuable if the savings are sustained. A revised cash waterfall matters if it improves payment discipline across the electricity value chain.
Better tariff structures matter if they strengthen productive-sector competitiveness without undermining affordability. Cybersecurity infrastructure matters if it protects increasingly digital energy assets. Competitive BESS procurement matters if storage can be integrated into the grid at an economically sustainable cost.
In that sense, reforms should not be judged only by announcements or the completion of individual programmes.
Their lasting value lies in whether they change the incentives and operating structures that have historically produced inefficiencies.
Dr. Ackah’s five-year account provides a glimpse into that process, from electricity pricing and PPA renegotiations to financial mechanisms, cybersecurity and storage.
He ended his reflection by thanking the people and institutions with whom he worked and acknowledging the support he received during his time in public service.
“I thank God. Time to move on! Where? Maybe, back to the farm or house-husband looking after my grandchildren, or join a think tank or join Y. Find Y?”
Dr. Ishmael Ackah asked.
For Ghana’s energy sector, however, the work he describes points to an agenda that remains firmly unfinished.
The country still has to resolve the financial sustainability of its electricity market, expand reliable and affordable energy access, integrate more renewable generation, modernise its grid and ensure that new technologies are introduced without adding unnecessary costs or risks.
The broader lesson from Dr. Ackah’s account is that Ghana’s energy transition is not being shaped by one intervention or one technology. It is being shaped through a series of financial, regulatory, technological and institutional decisions.
How effectively those reforms are maintained, strengthened and implemented will determine whether Ghana can move from repeatedly managing energy-sector pressures to building a power system capable of supporting sustained economic transformation.
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