Engineers at the Aboadze power enclave in the Shama District and those on the Karpower ship in Tema are working towards uninterrupted power supply during the Christmas holidays and beyond.
Engineers of the Volta River Authority (VRA) at Aboadze are currently pre-commissioning the African Middle East Investment (AMERI) power plants, using generators, and are expected to add about 100 megawatts (MW), out of the expected 250MW, to the national grid.
The Karpower barge is also expected to add a little below the expected installed capacity of 225MW within the shortest possible time.
Benefits
With the additional power from AMERI and Karpower and other interventions, it is expected that there will be a significant improvement in power supply in 2016.
When the Daily Graphic visited the enclave at the weekend, the engineers were busy, while work on the switchyard expected to receive power and transfer to the national grid was almost ready.
The tie-in point between the VRA and the AMERI power plants was in place and the engineers were at work.
Plants & Switchyard
The 10 plants are all well positioned and the five transformers have also arrived from Romania.
Each of the transformers has been assigned to two sets of the 10 plants for successful evacuation of the power onto the national grid.
At the switchyard, the ground is well-compacted and civil and concrete works are progressing steadily.
There is also work going on at the GRIDCo gantries and it is expected that work will tentatively be completed in the second week of January 2016 for full supply from AMERI.
Challenge
In view of the additional generating units being added, the VRA needs to be ready to import more crude since the volume of gas from Atuabo will not be enough to feed T1, T2 and the AMERI plants.
From all indications, T2 and AMERI will be fed with the total of 110 million standard cubic feet of gas from Atuabo. Currently, AMERI alone can consume about 50 per cent while T2 can take the rest.
Meanwhile, news from the Ghana National Gas Company is that to enhance oil recovery from the reservoir, gas production at Atuabo will reduce from the current 110 million standard cubic feet (mmscf) daily to about 80 mmscf, from next year.
The move is attributed to the Jubilee Partners’ quest to increase oil production by injecting more gas to the reservoir, for which reason it will be necessary to cut supply to the onshore gas processing plant, according to the Jubilee Partners.
<<Print>>