B&FT Editorial: Shoring-up energy resources to power the economy.

Developers of the Bridge Power project in Tema have announced that the first stage of the project's phase-one will add 142MW of power to the country's power generation mix by end of this month.

The power plant, unlike many of the country's hydro and thermal plants, is capable of being fueled by Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG), natural gas or diesel, and will be responsible for importing its own fuel.

The first stage was initially planned to come on board in December 2019, but was pushed to the new year due to delays in delivery of back-feed power from GRIDCO, and completion of the LPG delivery facility.

Despite the setbacks, the consortium - made up of Endeavor Energy, General Electric and local trading concern Sage - together known as Early Power Limited - are confident of completing the first stage phase-one by end of this month and the second stage by December 3, 2020, which will take the project's capacity to 202MW.

This is a welcome development to the power sector, which has been bedeviled by a depletion of the country's hydro resources and the increasing reliance on thermal energy - seen by many as an expensive alternative.

Since the country has enough gas resources to meet demand for the next two decades, it is prudent that power is generated by utilising this resource that is in abundance to cut down on the country's energy expenses.

The announcement by the project developers is also timely, since the country is struggling to find use for its gas resources. Exploration companies like Tulow have had to re-inject gas back into basins, thereby increasing their cost of production.

It is hoped, therefore, that the developers are able to meet the time lines set so that we can effectively produce power at much cheaper cost.