The Chief Executive Officer of Cenpower Generation Company Limited, Theo Sackey has stated that Independent Power Producers (IPPs) have the capacity to produce enough power for the nation if the Volta River Authority (VRA) can make prompt payment.
By December 2015, the VRA was reported to be indebted to the tune of over 100 million dollars.
But speaking to Citi Business News at the tour of the 350MW Cenpower Project in Kpone, Mr. Sackey maintained that IPPs can produce cheap power with gas for the nation to prevent load shedding during emergency times.
“IPPs have the capacity to produce reliable power for this nation. Cenpower alone will add 350MW of power to our energy grid and that is significant power”, he said.
According to him, the project, which will be completed in the fourth quarter 2017, will help the nation to move away from hydro power, since it is increasingly becoming unreliable due to bad weather patterns.
“Cenpower Generation is highly committed to delivering the project on time and support from our partners; Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) contractor, sub-contractors , the community , the project sponsors , lenders and other stakeholders is tremendous” he said.
The EPC contractor has deployed a unique Tunnel Boring Machine at the project site.
The TBM will be used to construct the sea water intake and the sea water outfall, which will be used a as a cooling system for the Combined Cycle Gas Turbine power plant.
The EPC Contractor for the project, Group Five Power International of South Africa announced that the turbine is unique from all other turbines in the country.
Contract Director of Group Five, Mr. Stephen Trickett explained that “the sea water pipelines for the cooling water system cannot be constructed manually using conventional open trench techniques”.
According to him, engineers need specialized equipment in order to minimize the environmental impact of the construction activities.
“Group Five has therefore subcontracted the underground tunneling experts, Coleman Tunnelling Africa Limited, which will deploy the TBM to drill the underground passages, subways, and tunnels to construct the sea water intake and out fall”, he said.
He explained that the task is to tunnel four drives, starting from two launching shafts constructed on the seashore.
“Two of these tunnels will be straight and underneath the seabed whilst the other two tunnels will be curved shaped and onshore under the natural ground to the power plant, without disturbing the natural environment”, he said.
Currently, the project is over 40 percent complete.
By: Lawrence Segbefia/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana