Power barge to be connected to national grid in a week – GRIDCo

The power barge from Karpowership is to be connected to the national grid in about one week, according to the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo).

The barge, which sailed from Turkey, docked at the Tema Harbour on Saturday, and was inspected by a government delegation led by the Minister of Power, Kwabena Donkor.

There have been suggestions that it will take some weeks for the facility to be connected to the national grid.

However, the Chief Executive Officer of GRIDCO, William Amuna says although other works would have to be done before the barge operates fully, the company’s smelta 2 substation is ready to be connected to the barge.

According to him, all the necessary tests had been carried out on the the company’s Smelta 2 substation, paving way for the barge to be connected to the grid within a week.

“We have tested all the equipment at the substation and everything is okay. The line is through to our substation in smelta 2. Now we are going to hook up the gantry at the very top of the structure and that will be done during the course of the week. We expect that in one week we should be ready with the transmission network,” William Amuna told Citi Business News.

“With regards to GRIDCo, in one week, we expect that everything should be ready. That is the GRIDCo aspect of the job that we are going to do. There are other jobs that should be done here which are not under my control like the fuel lines and other things so I can’t say much about those ones,” he added.

Meanwhile, the CEO of Karpowership Global, Orhan Remiz Karadeniz explained that given the relatively low cost of the fuel that will be used to power the barge, the deal represents a good chance for Ghana to augment its power supply.

He stated that the ‘state-of-the-art’ barge would be capable of running on both crude oil and gas and also revealed a deal with the  Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to supply fuel for the power ship.

“[The fuel] is uninterruptedly supplied and it is currently the lowest cost fuel there is available in Ghana. It is cheaper than the natural gas from the West African pipeline, it is cheaper than light crude oil and it will contribute as the lowest cost thermal power in the grid which will be independent and immune from other supply issues.”

“Equipment is capable of operating on both fuels, equally efficient. It’s a brand new power plant with state-of-the-art technology with the same level of efficiency. If gas was to become available from indigenous Ghanaian sources, we’ll be able to use it with the same efficiency and that’s one of the reasons why GNPC has been supporting this project. They are our official fuel suppliers and part of their long term plan to make use of the indigenous gas when and if it becomes available,” Remiz Karadeniz added.

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana