Early Power Agreement Passed by Ghana’s Parliament
The Parliament of Ghana has passed the Early Power Agreement to add 400MW to the existing Power generating capacity in Ghana.
Sage Petroleum is a co-sponsor together with General Electric and Endeavour in the development of this Power plant which will help address the power situation in Ghana.
The Project which is a greenfield development project in Ghana for the rapid deployment of a 400 MW (net at site conditions) generation facility will be fueled initially by liquid petroleum gas (LPG) with diesel as backup fuel.
The Project will be developed in two stages on an accelerated timeline and will consist of the following:
· Stage 1a (OCGT): 142.5MW comprising of five (5) GE TM 2500 Gen8 Units comprising of 5 LM 2500 Gen4 Gas Turbines
· Stage 1b (CCGT): additional 51.5MW (total 194 MW) adding to the TM’s, five (5) OTSG, one (1) GE Steam Turbine and one (1) ACC, related balance of plant equipment and on-site LPG storage and transportation equipment.
· Stage 2a (OCGT): additional 160MW (total 354MW) comprising of four (4) GE LM 6000 PC Sprint Gas Turbines,
· Stage 2b (CCGT): additional 46MW (total 400MW) adding to the LM’s - four (4) HRSG one (1) GE Steam Turbine and one (1) ACC, and related balance of plant equipment.
· Stage 1a and 1b will be located on Site 1 which is a 6-acre site in the VRA Tema Thermal Power Project Complex. Stage 2a and 2b will be located on Site 2, a 6-acre site about 0.33km east of Site 1.
The Project will run on imported LPG as the primary fuel and Diesel as a secondary fuel. It is estimated that by year 5 of operation, Natural gas will be available for the project and this will then become the primary fuel with LPG left in place as a secondary fuel.
As part of this project, Sage, through its associated companies, will build storage spheres and construct a pipeline from the Tema Jetty to connect to the existing LPG storage and transportation infrastructure at the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR). This will ensure that in addition to supplying LPG to fuel the Power Plant, Sage will also be in the position to supply LPG to the local market.
Even though there has been some expression of concerns, some of the positive short and long terms impacts of the project as stated by The African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) includes the rapid deployment of an initial power of 144MW in six months from contract signing.
“This will help meet near term shortages. Also it offers ECG certain flexibility – its first stage includes 5 gas turbine units of 28.5 MW each that can operate independently and which can be started, stopped and then restarted all within one hour,” it said.
It also added that it will provide fuel supply infrastructure and security.
“The project investors are responsible for fuel supply. The project therefore provides for the construction of an LPG import and storage infrastructure, which increases Ghana’s fuel diversity and security”
