Fatalities on gas pipeline will delay power supply by a week - VRA

The Volta River Authority says it is on course towards ending the current load shedding by the end of this month or latest early next month.

According to the authority, the load management could even cease by the end of this year. Chief Executive Officer, Kweku Awotwi told some editors and senior journalists last night that work on the West Africa Gas Pipeline is almost complete for gas to be supplied.

Supplies of gas to the VRA ceased since August after the under-sea pipeline transporting the oil was ruptured, stalling operations at the Sunon Asogli plant which runs solely on gas

Presently, load shedding during off peak period has ceased. Mr. Awotwi explains several interventions have been put in place to address the problem.

“It is expected that load shedding would end by December should all the additional generation come into service as scheduled,” he said.

He said the VRA now expects gas from the West African Gas Pipeline Company to start flowing by the end of November, bringing on stream 170 Mega watts of power from the Sunon Asogli plant.

Kweku Awotwi, VRA Chief Executive, said the damage on the pipeline had been fixed and the company was pumping out the sea water.

However, he said, the exercise had to be suspended because of two fatalities during the pipeline re-commissioning at the Takoradi Regulating and Metering Station and this would lead to a week’s delay.

Mr Awotwi said the energy generation situation had improved over the last two months with Akosombo running at full allowed capacity while three out of the four units of Akuse were also running.

In addition, the four units of Aboadze Thermal Plant are running at full capacity while the steam turbine is producing 50 mega watts of power.

Mr Awotwi said total available capacity now is 1,601 Mega watts while peak demand in 1,705 mega watts, leading to a deficit of 104 mega watts.

He said the VRA was expecting two new projects the Takoradi three, which is running with 21 mega watts of power available to ramp up to 80 mega watts by the end of November while CENIT is expected to run by mid-November, once it could get crude oil.

Mr Awotwi said the full capacity of these two projects was expected to add a total of 240 mega watts by year end.