New Karpowership arrives at Tema today

Barring any last-minute hitches, Ghana’s second Karpowership with a 450-megawatt capacity is expected in the country by the close of today.

The new vessel, named Osman Khan, will replace the current 225 megawatts barge which was delivered in November 2015 and docked at the Tema Fishing Harbour.

This follows Ghana government’s agreement with the Turkish powership manufacturer to deliver 450 megawatts of power to help augment the current energy supply.

Officials told DAILY GUIDE that the incoming ship, although is the world’s biggest powership, it is self-propelled with minimum noise and vibration.

It is approximately 50m wide and 300m long, with dual fuel engines – utilizing low sulphuric HFO and NG fixed to function. It will also be connected to the national grid, and that both the barge and the vessel will work simultaneously for about a month, by which time the vessel might have been well stabilized before the 225mg barge is decommissioned and moved out of Ghana.

Checks by this paper revealed that the installation of the ship would take 3-4 weeks. The Energy Commission and Gridco will supervise the installation of transmission lines after which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will issue a permit before its commissioning.

Karpowership is a subsidiary of Karadenizholding – a pioneer in innovative energy projects which has been operational for the last 20 years.

A power ship is a special purpose ship on which a power plant is installed to serve as electricity generation source.

The existing Karpowership began operations in Ghana in 2015 with the current 225mg barge named Karadeniz Aysegul Sultan.