VRA starts test runs of new thermal plant

Test runs are being conducted on the Volta River Authority (VRA) Thermal Plant 3 (VRA T3) to pave, way for the production 132 megawatts of energy.

The new plant is scheduled to become fully operational by the end of November this year.

Additionally, the VRA T1, which was switched off more than four years ago for maintenance, has now come on stream.

It is scheduled to produce an additional 110 megawatts of power for the national grid from the VRA generating plants at Aboadze in the Shama District in the Western Region.

Briefing a delegation from the Ministry of Energy, led by the Minister, Dr Joe Oteng-Agyei, the Site Manager for S&W Energy Solutions Inc, the project contractors, Mr Clayton Sabine, said some units were ready to fire and that all the systems would be running by the end of October this year.

He said everything was progressing steadily and gave an assurance that the company would be able to meet the target to ensure that power was delivered to the nation.

Dr Oteng-Agyei said since the country had lost 300 megawatts of energy, there was serious work to be done to ensure that power was delivered as promised.

He said in pursuance of President John Dramani Manama’s policy directions on energy, the ministry and other stakeholders were working assiduously to provide stable and reliable energy to minimise tne impact of load-shedding.

The minister said when the country was hit by the gas” challenge, a team from the ministry initiated action to explore other alternatives of power generation.

He said aside from the 232 megawatts that Tl and T3 would generate, the new energy plant being established by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust ( SSNIT) would come on board with an additional 125 megawatts by October 15, 2012.

He said if everything went according to plan, the nation would be able to generate additional energy resources to make up for the shortfall of 300 megawatts resulting from shortage of gas.

Source: Daily Graphic