Coal energy policy heads to Parliament

Government is to present a policy on the use of clean coal for power generation to Parliamnet, as it strategises to address the decade-old power challenges facing the country.

The country has thus moved a step closer to joining almost half of the world’s economies that use coal-fired plant to generate cheap electricity for its population -- amidst claims that coal is the dirtiest form of energy, producing high amount of carbon emissions.

Power Minister Dr.Kwabena Donkor told Parliament last week: “It is believed that you can generate electricity at about 8cents per kilowatt hour using coal as against the 13 and 14 cents that we are paying using other sources of thermal generation. If this country is to establish a reliable power base, then we have to look at other sources.

“We will be bringing some of this policy documents to the House, and once it is approved -- irrespective of who is the Commander in Chief at any one time -- we will be able to prevent the recurrence of load-shedding.”

The Minister noted: “It will require about 400-700megwatts to fix the current generation deficit; however, with an exponential growth of 12% demand per annum, this will not address the long-term

“The Ministry of Power is encouraging both conventional and non-conventional forms of generation, by pushing for the use of biomas fuel plants, solar, and wind farms, tidal-powered generation as well as clean-coal fuel generation.”

The country generates the bulk of its power from hydro sources, augmented by thermal generation using crude oil and gas from Nigeria as well as the country’s own gas deposits from Cape Three Points.

However, poor rains in the north to feed major tributaries of the Volta River over the last three years, has led to a drastic reduction in the volume of water available to the Akosombo Reservoir for hydro-power generation. Challenges with gas supply from Nigeria via the West African Gas Company Limited also presents a challenge for power generators -- creating a deficit of between 400 to 700MW.

China’s Shenzhen Energy Group, parent company of Sunon Asogli Ghana Ltd., has said it plans to spend US$1.5billion to build a 700-megawatt coal-fired plant after feasibility studies yielded positive results.

The project is expected to include two units of 350 megawatts (700megawatts) and a subsidiary coal port with a 50,000-tonne berth as a terminal to receive coal from overseas and transmit it to the plant.

Construction could take between 30 to 36 months, or even longer, depending on local conditions and available resources in Ghana, the company said.

“This country is also moving on a new trajectory, which is that hydro is increasingly becoming a minor player in the generation mix and therefore going forward other generation sources that are more expensive than legacy hydro will have to become the dominant generation source: but Ghana has a responsibility to remain competitive; we are looking at the introduction of clean-coal technology to address future needs while the renewable sector builds up.”

In the medium-term concrete measures being undertaken by the ministry to end the ongoing load-shedding exercise include, for the short-term, “restoration of existing plants that have been shut down, completion of ongoing projects: 220megawatts Kpong thermal power project, 110megawatts TICO expansion project, 80mw Asogli phase 2 project, and an emergency power project”.

He explained that under the emergency projects “a 225 powership, 250mw Americ power project,370mw Askar , 110 mw TEN project, these projects should be adding power to the national grid by the end of this year”Kwabena Donkor said.

The Member of Parliament for Ablekuma North, Joe Appiah, enquired from the Power Minister the availability of crude to power thermal plants.

The minister explained that: “Crude is a component of the fuel supply, the primary fuel for Aboadze is not crude but natural gas. Crude is the secondary fuel in the absence of natural gas, so in our solution we are looking at natural gas based solution; the plants are more efficient when they run on natural gas, and that is why we have learnt from that and are bringing in emergency Liquified Gas to the Tema corridor so that in the worst-case scenario at Aboadze we can pump this natural gas through the West Africa Gas Pipeline to feed the plants at Aboadze”.

In the medium-term and in line with government’s promise to ensure that load-shedding does not recur in the foreseeable future, arising out of generation deficit at the end of the current exercise, “The Ghanaian state is creating an enabling environment to allow both state and non-state actors access to add substantial capacity to our generation mix and ensure adequate redundancy as required by international best practice”.