Ghana Gas to shut down for a week in January

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December 28, 2015 6:38 PM

The shutdown of the national gas company would mean a suspension of gas supply to the embattled Volta River Authority (VRA) that uses the gas to generate power from its thermal plants in Aboadze in the western region.

Pulse.com has learnt the Ghana National Gas Company is expected to shut down for mandatory maintenance from January 15 to 22. This could possibly knock off 220 megawatts from the National grid leading to intermittent power cuts during the period.

There are assurances the shutdown of Ghana Gas will not lead to another round of loadshedding due to plans to buy crude to power the thermal plants in the western region.

But critics are doubtful because of the risk to the integrity of the plants to briefly switch onto hard crude.

The National Gas Company is trying to beat time and secure enough funds to renew its 2.5

million dollar insurance policy that expires on the last day of the year (Decmber 31) and also replace an 8 million dollar faulty compressor.

According to sources there has not been loadshedding for the last one week during this Christmas and New Year festivities. Ghanaians have expressed mixed reactions to the prospect of finally seeing an end to the 4 year old power crisis.

Eunice Donkor lives in Adenta and she says , “the situation has only improved because it is time for Christmas , because of the failed timelines , I don’t have any expectations when it comes to issues of power”. Emmanuel Adjei lives at Taifa and according to him, the power situation has improved tremendously in the last 5 days and he is optimistic it will continue into the new year.

Government promised to add 800 megawatts to the National grid before close of 2015 as captured in the 2016 budget statement read on the floor of parliament. The improvement in power supply could then be linked to the completion of the 220MW Kpone Thermal Power Project, 235 MW Karpowership project , 180 MW Sunon

Asogli expansion project , Volta River Authority (VRA) expansion of its existing Siemens plant adding 38MW to its existing capacity of 49.5MW.

As to how sustainable the current improvement in power supply will be , only time will tell.

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