General Electric to help solve Ghana’s power challenges

General Electric (GE), a world energy solutions leader, has affirmed its commitment to support Ghana solve its power supply challenges.

Already, the company’s subsidiary, GE Power, has, over the past two years, contributed more than 500 megawatts (MW) of electricity to the national grid, with plans underway for an additional 900MW in the next two years.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra, the Senior Vice-President of GE, Mr Russell Stokes, said GE would not renege on its unflinching support for the country.

Mr Stokes, who is also the President and Chief Executive Officer of GE Power, was on a tour of duty of sub-Saharan Africa, beginning from Ghana. His tour also took him to Nigeria, Angola and South Africa.

Projects

In 2017, GE indicated its intention to strengthen the power sector in Ghana by rolling out a 400MW Bridge power project which will be the first LPG-fired power plant in Africa and the largest LPG-fired power plant in the world.

Another project, involving the establishment of a 200MW Amandi power plant, will also be one of the most efficient power plants in the country and generate the equivalent power needed to supply more than one million Ghanaian homes.

Commitment

Mr Stokes said GE was ready to learn the peculiar dynamics of Ghana’s energy challenges to arrive at the outcome that Ghanaians were looking for.

“What I will tell you is that we are committed to the country and we want to continue to humbly learn everything that we need to do to continue to work with the outcomes that Ghanaians are looking for,” he stated.

Dumsor

Touching on the country’s erratic power supply, otherwise called dumsor, and whether GE was the company going to take Ghana out of the throes of darkness, he said the company was in Ghana because it believed it could contribute to its quest to ensure uninterrupted and adequate power supply.

He praised Ghana’s vision for the power sector and its ability to execute planned projects, saying: “I go to a lot of places where there is vision but not execution. I am seeing both here. Projects are actually progressing. I see a good set of partners that are able to get things done; that we have worked closely with for many years.”

While alluding to the fact that GE currently had partners to do and finance some of its energy projects, Mr Stokes expressed his excitement about the availability of gas to power a project that GE had initiated with Marinus Energy, a local company.

What makes Ghana attractive?

He said what made Ghana an attractive destination for GE’s investment was the opportunity the country offered to provide power that would grow its economy.

“I think there is still such an opportunity to bring power and be able to grow the economy. So in that regard, I see Ghana as having a very high level of potential to continue to move forward,” he said.

Sharing his perspectives on energy, the CEO of GE Ghana and GE’s Gas Power Systems, Mr Leslie Nelson, said as a result of his company’s contribution to Ghana’s energy mix through the Cenpower and Bridge power projects, it was envisaged that by the end of 2018 right up to 2019, GE’s contribution to thermal generation would have increased to about 85 per cent of thermal power in the country.

He said GE’s contribution to Ghana’s power sector included “making projects that, may be, wouldn’t happen without a company like ours [considering], the global scale”.

On GE’s commitment to fight erratic power supply, Mr Nelson stated: “About 90 to 95 per cent of the people who work in this office are locals; they are Ghanaians who intend to live here and so when there is dumsor, we all feel it together; when the lights are on, we all enjoy it together, and when the price of electricity drops, then we’ve all got more money in our pockets. So this is not a fly-in-fly-out culture and that should make you feel our commitment to the country.”