The commissioning of the Kumasi 1 Thermal Power Project on Wednesday, April 18 by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is set to address voltage and power quality issues in Kumasi and the northern parts of Ghana by boosting system voltages and thus improving overall system stability, the Volta River Authority (VRA) has said.
The President will be supported at this event at Anwomaso Kumasi, the project site, by Energy Minister Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the VRA, Ing. Emmanuel Antwi Darkwa
In a brief by the Authority, the move comes on the back of a grid impact study undertaken by the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo), recommending that a minimum of 250MW of power generation was required in the Ashanti Region to guarantee reliability and stability in the national grid.
The VRA also believes that the siting of a power plant in Kumasi would ensure that electricity consumers in the middle and the northern parts of the country received quality and reliable power.
The project, according to the VRA, also aims at the efficient optimization of the use of a strategic national asset.
It will also ensure the efficient utilisation of gas resources concentrated in the western part of the country and also create job opportunities for people in Kumasi and its immediate environs.
The brief also said aside from the creation of opportunities for KNUST, Kumasi Technical University, and other technical universities to carry out practical training on thermal power operations for their students, the project is also expected to reduce system transmission losses by an estimated 30MW.
Background
The Kumasi 1 Thermal Power Project came into being after the expiration of the BOOT agreement between Ameri Energy Limited and the Government of Ghana on the erstwhile Ameri power plant.
In 2022, the plant was handed over to the GOG and subsequently transferred to the VRA.
Accordingly, the Ministry of Energy together with the VRA took a strategic decision to relocate the plant to Kumasi and since then, the project has been named the Kumasi 1 Thermal Power Project and funded entirely from the VRA’s IGF.
The project is being executed in two phases; the first phase which is being commissioned on Wednesday commenced in May 2023 and involved the relocation of the first six TM2500 units with a total generation capacity of 150MW.
The second phase will be completed in June 2024, to increase the plant’s capacity from the 150MW to 250MW.
The project is being executed by VRA’s in-house team of engineers, with support from some selected service providers.
This is a testament of Ghanaian ingenuity and the belief of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government in Ghanaian capacity.
