President Akufo-Addo and Boakye Agyarko cutting sod for the power project in Tema yesterday
President Akufo-Addo has reiterated his commitment to finding a lasting solution to the country’s energy problems.
Speaking at a groundbreaking ceremony for the commencement of an almost $1 billion 400 megawatts Bridge Power project at Tema yesterday, he said, “For the past five years, our experiences with power supply have been traumatic; all aspects of our lives have been affected, the economy has been damaged, businesses have been destroyed, individual and family lives have been put under severe stress and our self-confidence has been dented.”
In all this, he noted that in true Ghanaian style, “We’ve tried to treat the very serious and depressing situation with jokes; but we all know that this is not an experience that we will want to continue extra day.”
To that effect, he stressed, “As your president, I know that the problem of power supply is at the top of the list of problems that must be solved.”
The Bridge Power project would be the first LPG fire-powered plant in Africa and the largest in the world.
The plant would operate on LPG, natural gas and diesel, which would allow the plant to continue producing power in times of disruption in one of any of the fuel types.
The project is expected to produce its first power supply by the end of this year or early next year.
President Akufo-Addo believes that “early power will help upgrade TOR’s import and storage infrastructure.”
He said the Bridge Power project is consistent with his government’s vision to make Ghana self-sufficient in electricity supply to drive its socio-economic development.
Worry
He acknowledged the fact that successive governments had taken various initiatives to help find a lasting solution to the country’s energy needs often during emergency periods and times of power shortages.
“It looks like the government of Ghana has not fared very well in these negotiations with these independent power producers.”
The president underscored, “I believe that it is possible for the power producers to make a reasonable profit with a fair agreement that does not sink the fortunes of the country,” stating that he was therefore looking forward to working with the consortium to help his government fulfill its vision of creating a modern, efficient, diversified and financially sustainable energy economy.
Expectation
“I intend to grow this economy industrially, and that can be achieved when we have adequate, cost-effective and sustainable power supply. The programmes this government has lined up to undertake, such as the ‘one district, one factory’ and the ‘one village, one dam’ will all require significant amounts of electricity,” he pointed out.
He stressed the need for power produced in the country to be cost-effective, efficient and sustainable; and was convinced about the fact that the technology to be used under the Bridge Power project would be one of the most efficient types in the world.
The project
Bridge Power is a green-field power and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) import, storage and transportation infrastructure that will be located near the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR).
Stage 1 will use five GE TM2500+ gas turbines and one purpose-built GE steam turbine in a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) configuration that will collectively generate 200 MW of power. Stage 2 will add another 200 MW through four GE LM6000 gas turbines and one purpose-built GE steam turbine, again in a CCGT configuration. Together, this will amount to over 17 percent of Ghana’s reliable generation capacity.
Bridge Power is being developed by Early Power Limited (EPL) consortium, made up of Endeavor Energy, a leading independent power development and generation company focused on Africa; Sage, a leading independent Ghanaian energy trading firm and General Electric (GE), the world’s premier digital industrial company.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondence
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