VRA completes Prestea-Obuasi Transmission Line

The Volta River Authority (VRA) said on Wednesday that it has completed 112 kilometres transmission line from Prestea to Obuasi that would put an additional 200 MW of power into the National Grid.

This would come from the Takoradi Thermal Power Station and imports from Cote d'Ivoire, which would improve the availability and reliability of the power supply system, according to a statement signed in Accra by Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, Chief Executive of the VRA.

The statement said the Prestea - Obuasi Line Project, which cost about eight million dollars and about 10 billion cedis, was the first major project in Ghana's power sector to be funded, constructed and supervised entirely by the VRA without recourse to external donor funding.

The statement said the Project, which was initially conceived as part of the Takoradi Thermal Power Project was faced with considerable delays, which resulted in a situation where though the power supply capacity of the Western part of the country was approximately 800 MW, only a maximum 450 MW could be made available.

The statement said the decision to construct the Prestea - Obuasi line was taken by the current Board of Directors and the Chief Executive.

The decision was taken because of the severe reduction of power generation from Akosombo and Kpong Hydro-Power stations due to the low level of the Volta Lake over the past two years and the need to increase the availability of thermal power and imports to make up for the shortfall in generation from the Lake.

"It is important to note that with the level of the Akosombo Lake standing at its second lowest level in history, the VRA has been able to meet all the power requirements of the nation without having to undertake any systematic load shedding."

The statement said with the Prestea - Obuasi line now in operation, VRA could now take more power from the Western Corridor and, therefore, be able to reduce generation from the Akosombo Plant and thus protect the integrity of the Lake and also contribute to efforts to resuscitate and revive the Lake to its normal operating levels.