John Jinapor (left), Jay Ireland, Sean Long and Vincent Le Guennou signing the deal
General Electric (GE), a multinational and its partners, Endeavor Energy and Finagestion, have signed a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) with the Government of Ghana to develop 1,000 Megawatts (MW) electricity project in the country.
The project dubbed: ‘Ghana 1000’ is an integrated gas-to-power initiative, which is expected to deliver more than 1,000MW of electricity to Ghana’s national power grid beginning 2017.
It is to be located in the Western Region and will combine the importation of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), a dedicated Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FRSU) to receive, store and regas, while associated infrastructure will be provided to transport natural gas on-shore to advanced GE turbines to generate power.
The Deputy Minister of Energy and Petroleum, John Jinapor, speaking at the signing ceremony yesterday in Accra, said the government of Ghana would provide adequate credit enhancement in a transparent manner to ensure the success of the project.
Mr. Jinapor, who pleaded with Ghanaians to patient with the government owing to the current disruption of electricity supply across the country, indicated that the project would help reduce the cost of power to enable every Ghanaian have access to electricity.
President of GE Africa Region, Jay Ireland, in a speech, stated that the first phase of the project would require more than $20 million of development capital, over $200 million of equity from the project sponsors and more than $ 600 million in-debt financing.
He gave the assurance that the project would be executed and developed to international standards and that the plant would run optimally.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Endeavor Energy, Sean Long, noted that ‘the Ghana 1,000 project will be unique because it will both add reliable, base-load generation as well as help to lower the cost of power in the country when compared to plants currently running off expensive light crude oil.’
The Chairman of Finagestion, which operates in Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal, Vincent Le Guennou said, ‘This is the first time such quantum of power will be produced from a single location in sub-saharan Africa outside South Africa.’
Meanwhile, the first phase of the project is expected to deliver power by 2017 initially producing 360MW ‘in simple cycle mode.’ By 2018, it would produce about 540MW in combined cycle mode. The second and final phase of the project is expected to be completed by 2019.
Endeavor Energy, an Africa-focused developer and operator of thermal and hydroelectric power projects, would together with GE, the US electric corporation, co-lead the development of the project.
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By Melvin Tarlue
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