VRA POSTPONES POWER TO MARCH??

The Volta River Authority (VRA) says it cannot
fully utilize the 120 million standard cubic feet gas
produced by the Ghana National Gas Company
because some of its plants have shut down for
maintenance.
According to the company, the said plants would be
ready by March, this year.
Samuel Fletcher, Head of Corporate
Communications of VRA, in a statement, said the
first TICO Unit has recently been returned to
service after a long period.
“We expect the process of conversion to gas to be
completed within the next two weeks to increase
gas consumption to about 80 million standard cubic
feet.”
He said the second TICO Unit has been taken out
of service for scheduled maintenance and would be
available in March saying, “accordingly, the full
120 million standard cubic feet can be used from
March 2015.
Mr. Fletcher said the units at VRA’s T1 and T3
plants have been running on gas supply from Ghana
Gas Company since November 2014.
“Even though VRA is responsible for supplying TICO
with fuel, we have no control over its operations.
TICO has not been able to complete the
commissioning of its plants to gas due to the
erratic and inadequate supply of gas from Nigeria.
“TICO is therefore unable to immediately start
operating on gas as the units require some work
before the fuel switch, he said.
Mr. Fletcher said TICO Units have run solely on
crude oil since completion in 2000 and, therefore,
need some to run successfully on gas.
Ghana Gas last week announced that it is waiting
for the Volta River Authority (VRA) to complete
requisite works at its Aboadze Thermal Plant
Complex to enable it increase the available
generating capacity.
Dr. Kwesi Botchwey, Board Chairman of Ghana
Gas, who made this known in a statement released
recently, said once the VRA completes expansion
works at its Aboadze Thermal Plant Complex “it will
be possible for us to increase our off-take of raw
gas from the Jubilee Field’s FPSO Kwame Nkrumah
to supply VRA lean gas at the optimal 120 million
standard cubic feet per day (120MMSCFD).”