VRA beset by challenges
The Chief Executive Officer of the VRA, Mr Kweku Awotwi, who made this known to Graphic Online, noted that despite the challenges the authority had not relented in its quest to generate power to meet the increasing demands.
It is estimated that demand for power rises by 10 per cent every year, which means that adequate infrastructure must be put in place to meet such demands.
An increase in economic growth also means that adequate power must be available to match the growth.
Ghana’s economic growth was last year projected to be the fastest-growing in the world for the first half of 2011.
Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which at the time was estimated to be 20.146 per cent, was far ahead of the 14.337 per cent recorded by Qatar as the next fastest-growing country. Qatar was followed by Turkmenistan, which recorded 12.18 per cent; China, 9.901 per cent; and Liberia with 9.0 per cent.
The ECG began an emergency load shedding as a result of relative instability in supply in the past month.
“The Electricity Company of Ghana has been compelled to undertake emergency load-shedding due to generation shortfall. We regret that this unfortunate situation will continue for some time until advised otherwise by our suppliers,” an official announcement from the ECG said.
But according to Mr Awotwi, the authority was embarking on a number of projects to stabilise and increase the supply of power.
One of such projects, he said, was the installation of a $200 million 200 megawatts generating facility at Kpone near Tema which was expected to be ready in 2014.
In addition to this, he said, was the expansion of the Takoradi ‘T2’ plant from its current capacity of 220 megawatts to 330 megawatts.
Mr Awotwi said the $300 million initiative was expected to take two and half years to complete.
Aside those, he said, the VRA was to mount $200 million wind generation facilities along the coast to produce 100 megawatts.
Feasibility studies are also on-going for a 700 additional generating capacity at Domunli in the Western Region and Tema.
On the current load-shedding, Mr Awotwi said the exercise was not planned at all.
He said there was power to meet the population but due to the lack of gas as a result of the problem with the West African Gas Pipeline, anytime there was a maintenance or outage, power had to be cut in some areas.
An anchored ship being pulled by pirates in August last year damaged part of the pipeline in neighbouring Togo, therefore, cutting gas supply to the destination countries. Repair works began in September last year to restore the pipeline.
The gas pipeline transports natural gas from Nigeria to customers in Ghana, Togo and Benin.
The lack of gas from as a result of the broken pipeline has affected the supply of gas to the VRA and caused a shutdown of the Sunon Asogli Power Plant.
Due to the lack of gas, there was no reserve in the event of a maintenance or outage which reduced supply by between 70 and 150 megawatts.
Moreover, Mr Awotwi said, the Takoradi ‘T3’ facility that should have been ready also had some challenges, and “that has delayed a little bit”.
Mr Awotwi indicated, however, that in the next four weeks the facility was expected to be ready.
He, among other things, expressed the hope that with the repair of the West Africa Gas Pipeline and the subsequent coming on board of part of the Bui plant sometime in April this year, the situation would see some stabilisation and improvement.
Story by Emmanuel Bonney
