General Electric to support Ghana's power generation effort
General Electric (GE), an American energy giant, yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Energy to support the nation’s power generating capacity.
Under the memorandum, GE will facilitate the development and financing, as well as the provision technical partnership required for the implementation of a project to increase power generation by 1,000 megawatts.
The 1,000 megawatts of power will be generated by thermal plants.
The agreement comes on the heels of the government’s proposed target to generate a total of 5,000 megawatts by 2016.
The Minister of Energy, Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, signed on behalf of the ministry while the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GE, John Rice, initialled on his company’s behalf.
Dubbed the, “Ghana 1000 Megawatt Project”, the initiative will introduce the power park concept.
Under the power park concept, power will be generated in a more efficient and effective way, eliminating wastage.
Mr Buah said over the past four years, the government had made “tremendous strides” in its vision to provide electricity for all Ghanaians.
However, he said, the nation had to contend with the unfortunate events of August, 2012 when gas supply through the West African Gas Pipeline was disrupted.
That, he said, brought enormous challenges within which also laid opportunities.
This year, he said, the government had inaugurated and put into operation a 132 megawatt thermal plant at Aboadze, the first unit of the Bui hydroelectric dam and a two megawatt solar plant near Navrongo.
The government, he added, had commenced a project to install a steam component to the TICO plant at Aboadze which would add 110 megawatts to the installed capacity of the plant in 2015 and also the VRA’s Kpone Thermal Power Project which would add another 220 megawatt in the last quarter of 2014.
Various negotiations and discussions, Mr Buah said, were also ongoing with other independent power producers (IPPs).
According to him, the agreement with GE was a pointer to the fact that efforts to increase power generation in the country were yielding fruits.
“GE plants are the most known plants for thermal generation and it is my expectation that this proven technology and expertise of GE will bear on this project to ensure success,” he said.
Mr Rice, for his part, said his company was pleased to partner with the Ghanaian government in achieving its energy targets.
“Achieving the targets, we believe, will ultimately enhance the economic development and competitiveness of the Ghanaian economy,” he said.
In another development, the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Co Ltd (BOST), has signed an MoU with the Volta Lake Transport Co Ltd (VLTC) to release some of its assets to the VLTC to manage and operate.
They include a tug boat named MV Debre, a floating dock and four river barges named BOST One and BOST Two, each with a capacity of 750,000 litres and BOST Three and BOST Four, each with a capacity of 900,000 litres.
The assets also include ancillary facilities and equipment namely a mooring jetty and generating sets.
Under the agreement, the VLTC will operate and maintain the facilities for and on behalf of BOST to ensure transportation of bulk petroleum products from the BOST depot at Akosombo to its other depot at Buipe.
BOST, for its part, will make available at Akosombo, a minimum cargo volume of three million litres of petroleum products weekly into BOST storage tanks at Akosombo for transportation to Buipe.
The Managing Director of the VLTC, Mr Erik Yarboi, initialled on behalf of his company while the Corporate Affairs Manager of the BOST, Mr Rex Ohene Amoah, signed for his company.
Story: Mark-Anthony Vinorkor
