Pokuase power substation ready in July

The Bulk Power Supply (BPS) point being constructed at Pokuase in the Greater Accra Region is 95 per cent complete and on schedule to be handed over to the government by the end of July this year. 

According to the site engineers, all other ancillary facilities to support the full function of the system had been completed.

The Technical Controller at the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), Mr William Amuna, gave the assurance when and the team working on the project received the Minister of Energy, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, on a visit to the project site last Tuesday.

Mr Amuna said but for the outbreak of the COVID-19 in Ghana, which he said had forced the suspension of work for a while and delayed the supply of materials from China, the project would have been completed earlier.

Dr Prempeh, accompanied by officials from the ministry, was on site to assess progress of work on the 580-megawatt (580MW) project.

The project

The project is under the Power Compact Two agreement signed between Ghana and the United States of America.

The $60-million infrastructure, which is the first 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 Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

Mr Amuna said the project, on completion, would improve reliable power supply in Accra and its environs.

He said the Pokuase BPS would also improve voltage capability in its catchment areas, noting that due to the overload on existing substations in Accra, many customers had endured low voltages, particularly during the peak hours from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Game changer 

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo), Mr Amoakoh Baah, said the project was very critical to the effort to stabilise power and its supply.

He noted that BPS substations in Accra 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 to take some of the load off the existing substations in Accra onto the new one in order to improve power supply in the capital and its environs.

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

Indeed, Accra alone is said to consume more than 25 per cent of the total energy generated in the country.

Mr Baah 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”.

He said that exercise had necessitated power outages — popularly called “dumsor” — at some point.

Investments

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