Committee to present report on restructuring of VRA

A committee to advise the Minister of Power on the restructuring of the country’s lead generation entity, the Volta River Authority (VRA), will submit its report by the end of this month, the Minister, Dr Kwabena Donkor, has said.

He said the Electricity Company of Ghana’s (ECG) private sector participation programme was being structured with the assistance of the United States Compact.

Dr Donkor said the Ghana Grid Company (Gridco) was also examining its internal processes with the aim of improving performance, while the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NedCo), which covers 64 per cent of the geographical space of the country, was also slated for customer-focused reforms.

He said this at the opening session of a summit dubbed: “Powering Africa Ghana Investment Summit” in Accra yesterday.
The summit, which was attended by both local and foreign investors, was aimed at sharing ideas among investors and the government in the delivery of power solutions.

Outlook

Dr Donkor said recognising the dynamics of 21st century management, the government was under-girding the capacity expansion of the energy mix in the country with reforms and a restructuring of its institutional arrangements to respond quickly and proactively to the changing landscape of customer demand and satisfaction.

He said the government was developing a local content and participation policy that would be backed by the appropriate legislation to enhance indigenous participation in energy generation in the country.

He said the policy would also form the basis of a lasting partnership between foreign capital and indigenous expertise in the generation of energy to augment that of the state.

Dr Donkor conceded that change management had never been easy because it took people out of their comfort zone, but change was critical in the power sector.
He gave an assurance that the country had the human capital and determination to see through that pertinent imperative.

He said traditional tools, such as sovereign guarantees, government consent and support agreements and guarantees, were no longer available.
“We should, therefore, be looking at other innovations that are market based to secure the necessary project finance,” he added.

Load shedding

On steps that the government was undertaking to bring the current load shedding to an end, Dr Donkor said its response had been segmented into the short, medium and long term.

In the short term, he said, the government was bringing in a number of generating assets that included commissioning the 220MW Kpone Thermal Plant operated by the VRA and the 110MW steam component of the TICO expansion, delivering the 250MW Ameri Energy gas thermal plant, bringing in the 225MW Karpower barge, completing the 110MW TAPCo steam unit and ensuring that the 180MW phase two expansion of the Sunon Asogli project came on line.

He said those short-term measures were to be consummated by the end of the year.
He said the government had also recognised that the irregular and unreliable supply of fuel had been a contributory factor to the generation inadequacy.

He said to further strengthen the fuel supply chain; the government was working on two projects with the private sector to ensure adequate supply of gas to the generating assets within the eastern enclave.

In the medium to long term, he said, the government intended to add substantial capacity to generation