Business News of Tuesday, 20 August 2019
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
2019-08-20
Energy Minister, John Peter Amewu
Civil and marine engineering solutions provider, Amandi Energy which serves as one of the contractors facilitating the connection of power transmission lines to Karadeniz Powership Osman Khan (Karpowership) has stated that the first gas connection will be completed by September ending this year.
General Manager for Amandi Energy, David-Ben Ayun, disclosed that about 70% of the job has been completed although logistics required for the said project are huge. “We are putting in every effort to meet this target.” He said
The 470 Megawatts Powership, which was operating on Heavy Fuel Oil, was sailed from its previous point in Tema Fishing Harbour to Sekondi to utilize Natural Gas from the Western Enclave.
Karpowership has been off the national grid for a period of 17 days to carry out various pre-commissioning works to successfully connect with the 330kV transmission lines in Sekondi, according to a statement by the company.
The relocation is a move by government targeted at reducing cost of power consumption and save the state millions of dollars annually.
I am happy with the progress made – Energy Minister
The Energy Minister, Peter Amewu, after visiting the various stations seeing to the implementation of the project, said he is happy about the strides made so far.
The minister, on a media tour visited the Takoradi Regulatory and Metering Station (TRMS) of the Ghana Gas Station, the Onshore Terminal Station (OTS) as well as the Karpowership vessel in Sekondi to ascertain progress of the work done so far.
After various interactions with the stakeholders, the Minister said he was impressed with efforts made by suppliers who, according to him are working assiduously to reach the deadline for the first supply of gas for the 470 Megawatts vessel.
“This project is about four different phases. The construction of the pipeline, the construction of the transmission line you saw. There are five good components that are in this project. It’s quite a complex project but what is interesting is that we have the KarPower from Tema to Takoradi. And I want to thank the contractors for the hard work done.”
He added that, “Now that the Karpower is here, we need to quickly move it to first gas. The pipelines for the gas has been completed, transmission lines are in place, but at the OTS there are certain things that has to be done like bringing the pressure down from the TRMS for a smooth transmission.”
In response, David-Ben Ayun said the team is trying their best possible to fulfil the promise they made to the minister, that is, to finish with the project in the shortest possible time.
“We made a promise to the Minister to deliver and since we are familiar with the pressure and the urgency of this project, we are cooperating with the Minister as early as we can.
He however, pointed out some complications with fixing the pipelines where the gas will be transmitted but was quick to add that it became a success at the long run.
