Govt welcomes power ship to Ghana

The Kar Powership, Ayselsul Suntan, would in the ensuing days be hooked to the Ghana Grid Company’s (GRIDCo) Smelter II station at Tema, ahead of a test run to be conducted on the facility to pave way for power production.

Already, officials of GRIDCo have completed work on the transmission lines which have since been hooked to the Smelter Station, awaiting to further hook the lines to the gantry on the powership.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GRIDCo, Mr William Amuna disclosed this at an inspection tour of the vessel at the Tema Fishing Habour, where the vessel docked on Saturday, November 28, 2015.

The Powership would in the ensuing days begin the production of some 235 megawatts (mw) of electricity, to enable GRIDCo evacuate the power from the facility for distribution.

A second facility with the same megawatts capacity is expected to be delivered soon to Ghana, in consonance with a power purchase agreement (PPA) Karpower Ghana signed with the Electricity Company of Ghana.

Per the agreements, the two powerships would generate some 450 megawatts for a period of 10 years.

Mr Amuna, who could however not give a definite timeline for the beginning of production of electricity from the ship hinted that some engineering works were expected to be carried out by the owners of the power barge.

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Listen to the Deputy Minister of Power, John Jinapor in the audio attached below {mp3}john_jinarpor_welcome_karpower{/mp3}
Power Minister

The Power Minister, Dr Kwabena Donkor who led a high level government delegation as well as officials from the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), did not answer queries from the media on production timelines as well as tariffs.

Officials from the utility regulatory body, the Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC), were also at the inspection tour.

Traditional rulers from the Tema Traditional Council poured libation at the facility to signify a safe arrival and a successful production and evacuation of power at the facility.

“President Mahama is expected to do an official commissioning of the facility in the ensuing weeks and all such queries and public concerns would be addressed at that forum”, Dr Donkor explained.

Describing the facility as a very useful one that could help ameliorate the country’s power needs, Dr Donkor hinted that electricity from the facility would help address the deficit created by shortfalls in production and supply.

He indicated that power sustainability remains key on government’s determination to ensure an industrial economy.

Dr Donkor also tasked the media not to exert unnecessary pressure on engineers working on the project.

“At the right time, we will have party for the media when necessary”, he added.

PURC

The Public Relations and External Relations Manager at the PURC, Nana Yaa Jantuah, hinted discussions on proposals for increment in utility tariffs were still underway.

“At the last meeting of the Commissioners, percentage increment of 102 came up, however, discussions were still underway to arrive at a percentage that could be beneficial to both the consumer and the provider”, Ms Jantuah hinted.

Listen to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Karpower Ghana, Orhan Remzi Karadeniz addressing the media in the attached audio below {mp3}karpower_orhan_remzi_welcome_ship{/mp3}

Karpower

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Karpower Ghana, Mr Orhan Remzi Karadeniz addressing the media indicated the project is one of the quickest power barges produced at a very lower cost by the company.

According to him, Karpower had invested a total of $30million on mobilisation, site preparation, marine infrastructure works along with fuel supply, storage management and grid interconnection.

“We have made arrangements with an independent supplier for the supply of Low Sulphur Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) to be used to power the barge to ensure an uninterrupted production at the facility”, Mr Karadeniz stated.

He explained that officials have also put instituted a dedicated shuttle vessel for the purposes of supplying fuel from the onshore storage facility to the on-board storage tanks of the power ship.
 
Mr Karadeniz, who described barge as the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) by a Turkish company in Ghana, remains hopeful the venture would be economically beneficial to both countries.