FPSO shutdown: ECG considering load shedding

The Electricity Company of Ghana will on Monday March 21 review the power supply situation in the country and decide if they should introduce a new load shedding timetable.

Power transmission company GRIDCO announced curtailment of gas from the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah to the Atuabo gas plant following a shutdown and significant reduction in gas supply from Nigeria due to attacks on pipelines there.

In a statement, GRIDCO said electricity consumers must brace themselves for possible power outages as engineers work around the clock to convert the fuel component of dual fuel thermal plant from gas to light crude.

Speaking to Class News, head of communications at the Volta River Authority (VRA) Gertrude Koomson, however, assured Ghanaians there will be constant supply of power.

“Asogli Plant, which is 200MW would be affected somewhat because they don’t use crude oil. In that case, we expect that Asogli will not be able to add to our generation in this period,” she said.

“But with Ghana Gas, we know that periodically they will shut down for this maintenance and so we have made adequate provision to supply light crude oil to the plant so there is no shortfall from our end.

“There are other contingencies that have been put in place to make sure that we don’t have power shortage to the extent that we have to do load shedding.

“Somehow, demand is also not so high for us to say that there is shortage. There is enough power generation from Aboadze and part of Tema, which is the VRA plant, which have been set up so that we can use both fuel from light crude oil as well as the gas.”

Meanwhile, sources at the ECG have told Class News the company will review the situation to see if there’s a need to introduce load shedding.