SRP COLLAPSES !

A COMBINED team of engineers from the Volta River Authority (VRA) and General Electric (GE) of the United States of America (USA) have begun dismantling the Strategic Reserve Plant (SRP) which was brought into the country to bail us from the energy crisis but ended up becoming a liability rather than an asset.

For now, the VRA has halted all on-going projects and has committed personnel to the SRP site as an emergency demand to ensure that the first generating unit of the power system is ready for shipment by today (Thursday).

So far, three out of the five unites are to be decommissioned and taken out of the country.

The Chronicle investigations at the Energy Ministry revealed that no official reason was assigned but highly placed sources hinted that it was a VRA management decision.

When The Chronicle visited the site of the SRP sandwiched between the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), WAHOME Steelworks and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) main Tema substation, the team of engineers were spotted busily disconnecting terminals of 11.5KV cables, fuel pipelines and all other connections to the wasteful project which among other things, led to the VRA workers’ strike that compelled the Chief Executive, Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby, to step aside and later resign.

A Tema - based Korean engineering company GLOTEC, which undertook piping to connect fuel to the main fuel tank to supply the plant was also at the site disconnecting pipelines to the main storage tanks.

Information gathered has it that the three units among the five that came by sea are to be airlifted to an unknown base outside the country.

The SRP project, this reporter gathered, has milked the state in that, almost every component of the set up is a ‘white elephant.’

The large size cables that were dismantled cannot readily be used anywhere by the VRA, huge investment into site preparation and the imported aviation fuel that was later found to be contaminated.

The Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) has been at the throat of the authority over tax on fuel that was imported to run the SRP.

The most recent addition to the mess of the SRP is the acquisition of a transformer to regulate power that would be produced from the site.

The VRA, after identifying that General Electric assembled much older power generating equipment, ordered a new transformer which cost raised an eyebrow within the authority.

As gathered, the VRA runs 161KV and steps it down to 33KV for the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), which in turn redistributes it to local consumers/individuals at 11KV.

Unfortunately, at the time the VRA landed its transformer with a huge capacity of 161KV stepped down to 11KV at the Tema port, General Electric again interpreted the contracted agreement which states that, it is the responsibility of GE to supply a transformer to deliver power that would be generated by the SRP.

The transformer provided by GE is 31 years old with a disconnection switch also in similar age group. No wonder, it broke into two as engineers were lifting it with a crane recently. Luckily, no one was under it, else fatality would have been registered.

Now, with the generating units of the SRP on their way out of the country as the project is abandoned, the question of where to utilize the huge expensive transformer that was ordered arises.

Investigations by this reporter unveiled that even through the VRA is faced with overloading its transformer at various substations across the country, the transformer delivered by African Bag, representatives of a major European manufacturers, can not be utilized anywhere. Probably, in the future, it has to be under utilized at ALUWORKS, a company VRA delivers power to directly.

Even that, as the huge 161KV is stepped down to 11KV instead of passing it on to the ECG, the income from ALUWORKS to VRA also comes to focus.

Presently, with VALCO shutting down, ALUWORKS is operating under severe stress for it is now importing raw materials.

From related information, The Chronicle has gathered that the main reason for the dismantling of the SRP units is, VRA does not have money to run the plants on aviation fuel.

First, an attempt was made to run the units on diesel but that failed. So far, it is estimated that the country lost over $31 million as a result of the procurement, installation and later, dismantling of the SRP units, ground works and installations undertaken by GLOTEC and other companies

A COMBINED team of engineers from the Volta River Authority (VRA) and General Electric (GE) of the United States of America (USA) have begun dismantling the Strategic Reserve Plant (SRP) which was brought into the country to bail us from the energy crisis but ended up becoming a liability rather than an asset.

For now, the VRA has halted all on-going projects and has committed personnel to the SRP site as an emergency demand to ensure that the first generating unit of the power system is ready for shipment by today (Thursday).

So far, three out of the five unites are to be decommissioned and taken out of the country.

The Chronicle investigations at the Energy Ministry revealed that no official reason was assigned but highly placed sources hinted that it was a VRA management decision.

When The Chronicle visited the site of the SRP sandwiched between the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), WAHOME Steelworks and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) main Tema substation, the team of engineers were spotted busily disconnecting terminals of 11.5KV cables, fuel pipelines and all other connections to the wasteful project which among other things, led to the VRA workers’ strike that compelled the Chief Executive, Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby, to step aside and later resign.

A Tema - based Korean engineering company GLOTEC, which undertook piping to connect fuel to the main fuel tank to supply the plant was also at the site disconnecting pipelines to the main storage tanks.

Information gathered has it that the three units among the five that came by sea are to be airlifted to an unknown base outside the country.

The SRP project, this reporter gathered, has milked the state in that, almost every component of the set up is a ‘white elephant.’

The large size cables that were dismantled cannot readily be used anywhere by the VRA, huge investment into site preparation and the imported aviation fuel that was later found to be contaminated.

The Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) has been at the throat of the authority over tax on fuel that was imported to run the SRP.

The most recent addition to the mess of the SRP is the acquisition of a transformer to regulate power that would be produced from the site.

The VRA, after identifying that General Electric assembled much older power generating equipment, ordered a new transformer which cost raised an eyebrow within the authority.

As gathered, the VRA runs 161KV and steps it down to 33KV for the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), which in turn redistributes it to local consumers/individuals at 11KV.

Unfortunately, at the time the VRA landed its transformer with a huge capacity of 161KV stepped down to 11KV at the Tema port, General Electric again interpreted the contracted agreement which states that, it is the responsibility of GE to supply a transformer to deliver power that would be generated by the SRP.

The transformer provided by GE is 31 years old with a disconnection switch also in similar age group. No wonder, it broke into two as engineers were lifting it with a crane recently. Luckily, no one was under it, else fatality would have been registered.

Now, with the generating units of the SRP on their way out of the country as the project is abandoned, the question of where to utilize the huge expensive transformer that was ordered arises.

Investigations by this reporter unveiled that even through the VRA is faced with overloading its transformer at various substations across the country, the transformer delivered by African Bag, representatives of a major European manufacturers, can not be utilized anywhere. Probably, in the future, it has to be under utilized at ALUWORKS, a company VRA delivers power to directly.

Even that, as the huge 161KV is stepped down to 11KV instead of passing it on to the ECG, the income from ALUWORKS to VRA also comes to focus.

Presently, with VALCO shutting down, ALUWORKS is operating under severe stress for it is now importing raw materials.

From related information, The Chronicle has gathered that the main reason for the dismantling of the SRP units is, VRA does not have money to run the plants on aviation fuel.

First, an attempt was made to run the units on diesel but that failed. So far, it is estimated that the country lost over $31 million as a result of the procurement, installation and later, dismantling of the SRP units, ground works and installations undertaken by GLOTEC and other companies