The MacBaron Group has developed a 2,000 Megawatts (MW) project in response to Ghana’s power generation needs in the Ketu Area of the Volta Region.
The Combined Cycle Gas Turbine and Heat Recovery System project, known as the Ketu Power Project (KPP), is intended as an efficient base load provider for Ghana and the West Africa Power Pool (WAPP).
A statement issued by Finite Earth Consult in Accra on Monday, said the MacBaron Group has been working on the project for the past four years.
Power shortfall on the existing WAPP grid is conservatively estimated at 5,000 MW.
Experts estimate that electricity demand growth in West Africa is above five per cent a year, representing 10 per cent for Ghana in particular.
Power consumption in the region is expected to double every 10 years.
The KPP incorporates an independent re-gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) fuel feedstock to enable it achieve international industry standard reliability as a base load provider.
The design would facilitate the use of piped natural gas from the WAGP when it becomes reliable, efficient and of good quality in the long term from Nigeria and Ghana, whilst the re-gasified LNG train would be maintained as a strategic fuel feed stock.
The KPP is also a planned lead development for the monetization of the natural gas associations of the Keta Offshore and the Voltarian Basin hydrocarbon resources.
The project will depend on the GRIDCo and WAPP grid in the short term while pursuing a vigorous grid development and expansion in collaboration with WAPP in the long term.
This part of the project code named ‘The Spinal Cord’, would see the development of a High Voltage Direct Current Siemens Technology transmission line from Ketu in Ghana, to Gao in Mali from, where much of West Africa, 1,000km to the east and to the west of the ‘Spinal Cord’ would derive good quality and reliable power.
Project promoters, the MacBaron Group, described the KPP as the next big thing to happen in Ghana, technically, industrially and economically.
With a total investment estimated at two billion Euros, the initial power output expected is twice the regular production of the Akosombo and Kpong Hydro projects combined.
The KPP has attracted the involvement of industry giants from Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
In the sub-region, it has also attracted the co-operation of power industry stakeholders in Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Burkina Faso.
Apart from receiving the co-operation from the Energy Commission, VRA, ECG, GRIDCo and others, the promoter, MacBaron Group, had assured the Ghanaian private and institutional investors that there would be sufficient opportunities for them at the table when all is set.
According to the promoters, an LNG import facility is being developed as part of the first phase of the proposed Keta Harbour Project to serve the fuel supply system.
Finite Earth Consult, consultants and technology aggregators of the project affirmed that “there is more than enough technology, know-how and financial resources to effectively and permanently end the power crises in Ghana within the first term of President John Dramani Mahama”.
“It only requires the necessary political will of Government to bring down the barriers that otherwise hold back this significant project from taking off as a private public partnership venture, “the statement said.
Recalling the concessions that President Kwame Nkrumah, late President of Ghana made towards the realization of Akosombo Hydro Electricity Dam, Finite Earth Consult pointed out that, “Significant problems cannot be solved by the circumstances that created it.”
Mr Mayor Agbleze, Coordinating Partner at Finite Earth Consult, told the Ghana News Agency that the project is fully conceptualized and is moving into front end engineering and design.
Almost all principal partners have been identified and have taken their positions.
The project is being financed by equity involving local and international, export credit facilities, supply credits and loans while special financial instruments are being developed to create business opportunities and make ownership available to all Ghanaians.
MacBaron Group is an agglomeration of businesses in high-end engineering and consultancy services, agriculture, and trade established in 1978. Its key partner is Ferrostaal AG, a world leader in engineering from Germany.
MacBaron Group partnered International Cocoa Merchants, Gill & Duffus as an affiliate to build the West Africa Mills, in Takoradi.
Later its affiliate Thyssen built the Cocoa Processing Company (CPC) Takoradi and rehabilitated the sister company CPC Tema
Another MacBaron Group affiliate, Ferrostaal AG, built a new first in Africa - the four ton/hour Cocoa Processing Facility for CPC, Tema which was inaugurated in 2005.
In the oil, gas and power sectors internationally, MacBaron’s affiliates have built the associated thermal generation plant for Ascon Nigeria and a thermal plant, refinery and ethanol plants for Trinidad and Tobago.
In 2012, Ferrostaal won an award to construct an FPSO for Brazil among many other referenced engineering contracts.
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