Work on 4MW Mini Power plant nears completion

Sinohydro Corporation Limited, the Chinese company contracted to build the Bui Hydroelectric Project, says it would soon complete work on a four Megawatt capacity mini power house at the dam site.

Mr Fu Jie, the Deputy Chief Engineer at Sinohydro told journalists visiting the dam site that, the extra four megawatts of power would be used by the offices of Sinohydro and the Bui Power Authority (BPA) at the site, their residence and also to start the generators at the main power station.

Currently, he explained, the BPA had to buy power from the Ghana Grid Company (Gridco) to jump-start its generators after any shutdown, adding that, the mini plant when completed would serve that purpose and eliminate the extra cost.

The visit was the final leg of a two-week media tour of selected Chinese funded or executed projects across the country to highlight areas of Chinese investments and contributions to Ghana’s economic development as the two countries prepare to mark the 55th anniversary of their bilateral relations.

Mr Fu said the construction of the mini plant was expected to be completed by October 2015 and would bring the total installed capacity of the Bui Power Station to 404 Megawatts.

He said the actual generating capacity of the plant currently, was dependent on the demand from the Ministry of Power as the plant was designed to play a complementary role to power generation from the Akosombo dam during peak periods between 1600 hours and midnight.

On average, the Bui Power Station produces between 80 and 220 megawatts of power daily to augment the available power, in order to ease the ongoing load shedding.

Production at the plant was also dependent on the level of water in the dam, which was currently at about 171.07 Metres above Sea Level.

The current water level also indicates a drop of about 12 points below the maximum level of 183 meters and only 3.07 meters above the minimum operating level of 168 Metres.

The $790 million project, located on the Black Volta River, between Bole in the Northern region and Wenchi in the Brong Ahafo region is the second largest hydropower station in Ghana after Akosombo, and was constructed over a seven-year period. The dam was inaugurated in December 2013.

Mr Fu assured that although the dam was built to last for about 50 years, it could last about 10 to 20 years longer if proper and consistent maintenance was done on the plant.