Ghana’s largest Karpowership finally arrived yesterday and docked at the Tema Fishing Harbour.
The power generating ship christened, Karadeniz Powership Osman Khan, will start operations in September on sulphur Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) to generate electricity and later use natural gas.
It will provide a total of 450MW of electricity daily which will directly be fed into the national grid for 10 years.
Sometime in 2015, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government contracted a barge from independent Turkish producer, Karpowership, to generate 235 megawatts of electricity daily to help offset the then national supply deficit of about 500 megawatts.
The arrival of the ship is in consonance with the power agreement signed with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), requiring Karpowership Ghana Company Limited to provide a total of 450MW directly to the national grid.
A statement released by Karpowership Ghana Company Ltd to announce the arrival of the ship yesterday morning indicated, “The 450 MW Powership will supply uninterrupted and reliable electricity at one of the lowest cost to Ghana for thermal power generation with its dual fuel engines and combined cycle power generation technology.
“The Powership will initially use low sulphur Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) to generate electricity but the fuel will be converted to Natural Gas as soon as local Natural Gas supplies become available, ensuring cost savings for Ghana. The operations of 450MW Karadeniz Powership Osman Khan will have a significant contribution to Ghana’s electricity supply as the most reliable power plant in the country and create more employment opportunities.”
The power barge was originally scheduled to dock at the Tema Port last Thursday but failed to do so as a result of what officials attributed to weather condition.
It was gathered that the new 450MW power vessel will use the pylons connected to the 235MW barge to carry transmission lines that will feed the national grid.
Both power generating plants will work simultaneously for about a month until the ship is well stabilized before the barge is decommissioned to sail off from Ghana back to Turkey.
Information gathered by DAILY GUIDE indicates that the installation of the ship will take 3-4 weeks. The Energy Commission and GRIDco will supervise the installation of transmission lines for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to issue a permit before its commissioning.
From Vincent Kubi, Tema