VRA brings experts to fix T3 plant as ECG sheds 230MW

The Volta River Authority (VRA) says it is expecting the equipment manufacturer of the Aboadze T3 thermal plant to arrive in the country by Saturday, to assess the cause of the “overheating” that occurred in Turbine Four of the installation.

The overheating, which led to an explosion, necessitated a precautionary shutdown of the four-turbine plant inaugurated two months ago to produce 132 megawatts of power.

The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) -- the distributor in the three-entity power production chain -- after a stakeholders’ meeting with the VRA and GridCo, has agreed to shed 230 megawatts this week as a result of the development.

“We are waiting for the equipment manufacturers to come and assess the situation; and if we are given the all-clear, then the three other turbines will come on-stream. In that case, we will only lose 20 megawatts from the shutdown of Turbine Four,” Samuel Fletcher, the Corporate Communications Manager of the Authority, told the B&FT.

“The cooling system might have failed, and this led to the over-heating within the system. This occurred in Turbine Four and an explosion happened. The three other turbines and the steam engine were shut down as a precautionary measure,” he said.

The country had to resort to an emergency power-rationing programme as a result of the destruction of a section of the West African Gas Pipeline last year, which cut 200 megawatts of power from the privately-run Asogli plant that relies solely on gas supply from sub-regional pipeline.

The West Africa Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo), which promised the resumption of gas supply by the end of April, failed to deliver -- due to what it said were contractual challenges and defects with machines cleaning the pipeline.

At the best of times, even before the breakdown of the pipeline, WAPCO has provided only about 40 to 60 percent of the contractual volume, estimated at some 123 million cubic feet of gas.

One of the units of the Bui Hydro Project was brought on-stream last month to generate 133 megawatts of electricity. B&FT has however been told that the project generates 90 megawatts of electricity between 6pm and 10pm each day, after which the plant must be turned off in order to maintain enough water supply for future generation.

As the hydropower potential of the country appears to be running out, there is an increasing emphasis on gas for electricity generation. The country currently demands 300 million cubic feet of gas per day, but none of this is available.

Ghana’s own gas supply, according to analysts, is not expected to come on-stream until next year, though Government had estimated to have gas before the end of 2013.