Pokuase Bulk Power Supply point to be ready in July 2021

The Bulk Power Supply Point (BPS) being constructed at Pokuase in the Greater Accra Region is 95 per cent complete and on schedule for handover to the government at the end of July 2021.

According to the site engineers, all other ancillary facilities to support its full function have also been completed.

The Technical Controller of the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), Mr William Amuna, gave the assurance when he led a team working on the project, to conduct the Minister of Energy, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh around the project Tuesday (April 20, 2021).

He said but for the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Ghana which forced the suspension of work for a while and supply of materials from China, the project would have been completed earlier.

The Minister of Energy, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh who was accompanied by officials from the ministry as well as a team of journalists, was on site to assess the progress of work on the 580 megawatt project (580MW).

The project

The project is under the Power Compact Two agreement signed between Ghana and the United States of America being supervised by the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA).

The $60-million project, which is among a number of Millennium Challenge Compact (MCC)-funded interventions, will fill a vital infrastructural gap and improve the distribution of electricity to support the financial and technical turnaround capabilities of the (ECG).

Mr Amuna said when the project was completed, it would help improve reliable power supply in Accra and its environs.

He said the Pokuase BPS would also improve the voltage capability in its catchment areas, noting that due to the overload on the existing substations in Accra, many customers complained about low voltages particularly during the peak hour, that is, from 8pm to 10pm.

The Minister and his entourage were conducted round the facility.

Game changer

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), Mr Amoakoh Baah, giving some background information about the project, said it is very critical to stabilising power in the country.

He noted that the Accra BPS substations supplied communities as far as Akropong, Nsawam, Weija and Kasoa.

He explained that the rationale for putting up the Pokuase substation was to enable GRIDCo take some of the loads off the existing substations in Accra onto the new one in order to help improve power supply in Accra and its environs.

He noted, for instance, that in the 1980s, the total load for Accra was about 100 MW, but currently, “the load is in the excess of 800MW which is more than a quarter of what we generated for the whole of Ghana.”

For Mr Baah, Accra alone was consuming more than 25 per cent of the total energy generated in the country.

He noted that because some of the BPS substations were overloaded in Accra “sometimes, we need to take some people off in order not to destroy people’s equipment”, a situation which often leads to power outages, popularly called “dumsor.”

Investments

Dr Opoku Prempeh expressed the optimism that the project would help stabilised power supply in the Greater Accra, noting that the government was investing in the power sector to boost the reliability of the country’s power supply efficiency.

He said it was not only the Pokuase BPS substation that the government had initiated and that there were other projects that the government was working on to improve power supply in the Greater Accra region and in the country as a whole.