ECG commissions sub-station for Tema Port enclave

The Tema Regional office of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has commissioned a new sub-station to serve as a backup to reduce outages within the Tema Port enclave.

Constructed at a cost of US $5 million, the 40 kilovolt (Kv) facility has two 20 megavolt ampere (MVA) transformers that will serve as interconnect sources of power supply to the new port terminal under development at the port.

The sub-station is also equipped with a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system to enable the transformer to be operated at any location apart from the main control room attached to the facility.

Significance

Addressing journalists in Tema last Wednesday, the Regional Engineer of the ECG, Mr Emmanuel Appoe, explained that with electricity load on existing transformers going overboard, it became necessary to develop an alternative sub-station to offload customers onto it so as to prevent a possible system failure within the port enclave and some residential communities within the Tema metropolis.

He said the choice of location became necessary in line with the company’s quest to ensure adequacy in capacity to enable it to service the new port when that facility commenced operations.

“Tema is heavily populated with industries and with the new expansion project of the port underway, we need to have adequate capacity to be able to service the port and surrounding industries,” Mr Appoe stated.

The idea of separation of the loads, Mr Appoe further pointed out, would ensure operational efficiencies and also reduce revenue losses.

Debt recovery

The Revenue Protection Manager of the ECG, Ms Zita Kyei-Gyamfi, also said a night monitoring programme undertaken by the office in June and July 2018 led to the recovery of GH¢870, 043 from consumers in three of the seven districts that make up the Tema region.

“Presently, there are 12 cases before our legal directorate awaiting advice for prosecution for various infractions,” Ms Kyei-Gyamfi stated.

She also explained that the implementation of an automatic meter reading (AMR) system, which had resulted in 1,200 meters being installed for selected customers within the Tema area, was to help eliminate human errors from the system.

The manager expressed hope that the reforms and projects being undertaken by the company would also reduce incidents of direct connections where customers tap from neighbours freely without going through appropriate channels.

For his part, the General Manager in charge of the Tema Region, Ing. Joseph Mensah Forson, added that the company’s monitoring system within the region had indicated that many households and industrial entities continued to devise means to illegally connect power without recourse to the company.