The Deputy Minister of Power, John Jinapor, has told Citi Business News that the current shut down of the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah for routine maintenance, will not lead to a load shedding exercise.
His assertion follows that of the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) which earlier assured the public that measures have been put in place to mitigate the impact on power supply during the period.
[contextly_sidebar id=”tmV64rHjzIeGhaYhbJvNX8N9bNkZuE9u”]The FPSO Kwame Nkrumah was shut down on Sunday to undergo mandatory inspection and maintenance works for two weeks.
According to GRIDCo, the Volta River Authority (VRA), has purchased enough light crude oil to power some of the thermal plants within the Aboadze power enclave in the Western Region.
GRIDCo earlier in a statement copied to Citi Business News said the transmission system may experience some challenges which may affect power supply stability due to the conversion of all dual fuel thermal plants to run on light crude oil.
But in an interview with Citi Business News Chief Executive Officer of the GRIDCo, Engineer William Amuna, said their engineers are working hard to complete the conversion in the next two to three days.
Deputy Minister of Power, John Jinapor, speaking to Citi Business News on the development, said measures have been taken to prevent the shedding of power.
“The FPSO is currently down, that created an initial deficit of 850 megawatts, 250 from Ameri, 300 from TAFCO units and 300 from the TICO units. However, in anticipation of the shutdown, we made adequate provision to procure crude oil. Indeed, we made provision and placed order for almost one million barrels of crude oil. We have discharged about 450 in Tema, and we intend to spend another 450 thousand in Takoradi today. And so our plan is to switch all dual fuel thermal plants within the Aboadzie enclave on light crude oil. And let me say that is the process.”
“…So far indication is that, one unit has been successfully switched and today they are working on the other units. So barring any unforeseen circumstances, if we are able to switch all the units, we should be fine and we should have no problem” he explained.
John Jinapor added that ‘if we are able to switch as soon as possible, we wouldn’t have any problem. Even though we have not completed the switching, we are not shedding. But in the events that we have a technical challenge and it results in some disruption, we think that we should pre-inform consumers, and that should be considered as temporary, but now we are not shedding. Buying crude comes at a cost and that is why we have to run the system. We are prepared to shoulder whatever cost to ensure that we supply power and so yes we want cost efficiency but for now, our primary objective is to get reliable power to the people of Ghana”.
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By: Franklin Badu Jnr/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
