450mw lost – Increased supply from Ivory Coast critical

• Posted on March 23, 2016
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The shutdown of Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Kwame Nkrumah for maintenance, which is expected to last for two weeks, coupled with limited gas from Nigeria for Sunon Asogli Power Plant, has knocked off some 450 megawatts from electricity generation.

The Africa and Asia Middle East Resources and Investment (AMERI) Power Plant, which generates 250 megawatts, and Sunon Asogli Power Plant, which generates 200 megawatts, both run on only gas.

Therefore, power supply from Ivory Coast will be crucial to avert a shortfall in electricity supply in the country during these two weeks.

It is, therefore, not surprising that the VRA Chief Executive, Ing. Kirk Kofie, and Deputy Minister of Power John Jinapor were in Ivory Coast last week to seek that country’s support to augment the shortfall in electricity supply in the country during this two-week period.

Ghana and Ivory Coast have a power exchange arrangement.

Ivory Coast comes to the aid of Ghana at certain times when power is needed and Ghana also goes to their aid when they need power.

What happens at the end of the day or month or year is that there is reconciliation to determine who gave more and who gave less so that the countries can balance through a clearing house.

Public Relations Officer of VRA, Gertrude Koomson said VRA has taken delivery of 950,000 barrels of crude oil to fuel thermal power plants to ensure that the shutdown of FPSO Kwame Nkrumah for routine maintenance does not impact negatively on power supply and plunge the country into darkness.

Half of the crude imported is discharged in Tema while the remaining is delivered in Takoradi.

These measures are part of several other contingency interventions to avoid load shedding during the FPSO shutdown.

The crude is expected to help generate some 600 megawatts from the Takoradi power enclave while Tema is expected to deliver some 330 megawatts during this period.

Tema Power enclave

Aside Sunon Asogli Power Plant, the other thermal power plants in the Tema power enclave are the Tema Thermal Power Plant (TT1) with a capacity of 110 megawatts; the 50-megawatt Tema Thermal Power Plant (TT2); the 100-megawatt Cenit Power Plant, and the Mines Reserve Plant, with the capacity to generate 80 megawatts.

Apart from the 50-megawatt Tema Thermal Power Plant (TT2), which uses only gas, all the others use dual fuel (either gas or LCO).

In the Takoradi power enclave, TAPCO units generate 300 megawatts while TICO units also generate another 300 megawatts.

TAPCO Thermal Plant

TAPCO has two plants, each with a 100-megawatt capacity.

It requires 10,000 barrels of crude oil per day to generate 200 megawatts a day.

As a combined cycle facility, the heat from the 200-megawatt generation produces an additional 100 megawatts to make the total generation from TAPCO 300 megawatts.

TICO Thermal Plant

TICO has two plants, each with a 100-megawatt capacity. It requires 10,000 barrels of crude oil per day to generate 200 megawatts a day.

As a combined cycle facility, the heat from the 200-megawatt generation produces an additional 100 megawatts to make the total from TICO 300 megawatts of electricity.

One hundred megawatts of thermal plant requires 5,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

Public Relations Officer of VRA, Gertrude Koomson said the 950,000 barrels of crude is enough to power the thermal plants for the two weeks that the FPSO will undergo maintenance.

Plans to switch all dual fuel thermal plants within the Aboadze enclave to light crude oil are progressing smoothly.

Meanwhile, Karpowership is generating 230 megawatts.

As of the time of filing this report, yesterday’s water level in the Akosombo Dam was 239.39 feet.

However, The Finder could not get the number of turbines running and the megawatts being generated by the Akosombo Dam.

By Elvis DARKO, Accra