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Roundup: Ghana to stem energy crisis with emergency barge

Xinhua, February 3, 2015 Adjust font size:

The government of Ghana said here on Monday it was going to install emergency power barges for up to 1, 000 Mega Watts (MW) to stem the energy crisis biting both industrial and domestic users.

It said the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) was expected to sign an agreement of financial commitment by the middle of February to pave way for the installation of the emergency power barges.

"With this done, we expect the first barge of power barges to arrive by April, and then the rest follows later," Minister of Power Kwabena Donkor announced here when he addressed the media on the energy crisis facing the country.

With an installed capacity of 2,840 MW, the country is only able to provide a dependable capacity of 2,300 MW.

The country is only generating 1,494 MW at peak period and 1, 238 MW at off-peak with a suppressed peak demand of 2,130 MW.

This is due to the low levels of water flow in the country's hydropower dams and the breakdown in some of the major thermal plants.

"These have therefore led to supply inadequacies leading to the current load shedding that we are experiencing," Donkor explained.

He added therefore that there was the need to use the emergency plants to stabilize the current situation to have a free hand to deal with the medium-to long-term generation issues.

The ECG and the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) shed about 650 MW of power at peak period relative to a planned 350 MW load shedding and 440 MW against a planned 250 MW load shedding.

The minister disclosed that both industry and mines were also forced to shed one-third of the power they consumed, resulting in a 130 MW load shedding from there.

In the long-term, the minister said government was working round the clock to end the situation this year and ensure it did not recur in subsequent years.

The current energy crisis began in the middle of 2012 when, due to an accident in Nigeria's waters, the West African Gas Pipeline could not supply gas to Ghana to feed its thermal plants.

Subsequently, when that issue was resolved, Nigeria was said to have reduced the supply to Ghana from the agreed 120 Million Standard Cubic Feet of gas Per Day (120 M SCFGPD) to about 30 MSCFGPD, making it difficult for the West African cocoa, gold and oil producer to maintain a healthy energy supply regime.

The China Development Bank (CDB)-financed Atuabo Gas Processing plant is ready and delivering gas from the Jubilee oil fields but a number of the major thermal plants, including 50 percent of the Sunon Asogli plant, are down due to breakdowns.

According to Donkor, the country was in the process of diversifying the energy sources, including bringing in 1,000 MW of clean coal facilities to ensure adequate power supply.

The government aims to build up to 5,000 MW installed capacity by 2017 to ensure the country has adequate supply and reserves in the medium-term.

"The purpose of adding substantial generation capacities is to create the needed reserve margins to run a power supply system efficiently and effectively and make it robust and resilient to meet our increasing demand," the minister added. Endi