VRA assures public of sustained power supply

June 8, 2011


THE Volta River Authority (VRA) has given assurance of sustained power supply now that the first phase of its maintenance work has been completed.
Although five more of the VRA’s six turbines are yet to be worked on, the Head of the Public Relations Unit of the authority, Mrs Gertrude Koomson, said that would not affect the production capacity of the hydroelectric dam.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday, Mrs Koomson said each of the turbines produced 150 megawatts of energy, and that was why there was shortage of supply during the period that the maintenance work took place on one of them.
She said just like other times when routine maintenance works took place, the recent repair works should not have created any problem if other sources of energy which could have made up for the shortfalls at Akosombo did not also have challenges.
The Public Relations manager explained that when the work was going on, the Aboadze Thermal Plant which supplied 200 megawatts was not operating fully and that affected the volume of supply to the country.
The production capacity at the Aboadze Thermal Plant was affected because gas supply from N Gas Company in Nigeria was reduced from 90 million cubic feet to 30 million cubic feet per day.
In addition, Mrs Koomson said one machine belonging to TICO at Aboadze and another one for the VRA broke down at the time of the maintenance work, thereby adding to the existing shortfall of power supply.
In an answer as to why there was shortage of gas supply from N Gas Company in Nigeria, she said although the West African Gas Pipeline through which the gas passed to the Aboadze Thermal Plant was in good condition, the suppliers said they had problems and, therefore, had to reduce the volume of gas to Ghana.
Mrs Koomson indicated that the 30 million cubic feet gas received from Nigeria was given to the Asogli Power Plant alone to generate power for the VRA.
She gave the assurance that now that the initial maintenance work had been completed, the load-shedding exercise would stop.
Last month, an extensive load-shedding exercise was initiated by the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDco) as a result of maintenance work being carried out by the VRA at Akosombo.
The exercise created a power deficit, leading to supply interruptions to many parts of the country.
The Public Affairs Manager of GRIDco, Mr Albert Quainoo, who made this known to the Daily Graphic in Accra, said the exercise, which began on Monday, May 30, 2011, was expected to end in July 2011.