If things go according to a 15-year power generation master plan for Ghana showcased by GRIDco last Wednesday, Ghana should not experience more than one hundred hours of power outage annually starting 2016.
Ing. Norbert Anku, Director of Engineering at the Ghana Grid Company, who made the presentation at a seminar organized by the Energy Center, KNUST said the plan is to guide investment especially from the private sector into the power generation system in the country.
The basis of the plan according to the presentation is a detailed load forecast, existing and committed facilities, optimal technology options, reserve margin and required reliability criteria.
“If everything goes well, if we get the right funding and time to build additional capacity, we hope that by 2016, we will not have power outages for more than one hundred hours in one year”, Ing. Anku reiterated in a later interview with this reporter.
The country’s system base load is projected to be 4161 MW based on various projected GDP and population growth rates. The total installed generation capacity currently is 2200MW with hydro contributing 55%, and thermal plants contributing 45% to serve the estimated 1573MW demand.
The Akosombo hydro plant has installed capacity of 1020MW, Kpong 160MW, Aboadze1&2 -550 MW, Tema plants- 175MW, Asogli power plant -200MW and MRP- 80MW.
By 2015, 1552MW of power is expected to be added to the national grid with the completion of the Bui Dam, CENIT plant, Aboadze 3 plant and wind plants in Techiman, which is expected to increase to 1780MW by 2019.
The total installed capacity of power in Ghana by 2026 according to the master plan is forecasted at 5451MW which would require a total of 174 million USD.
Bernard Buachi
Focus FM, Kumasi.