VRA: Drastic reduction in gas from Nigeria forces load management
Source: GNA - Ghana News Agency

Accra, Feb. 3, GNA – The Volta River Authority (VRA) announced on Thursday that a drastic reduction in gas supply from Nigeria through the West African Gas Pipeline to its thermal plants was forcing the power companies to embark on a load management exercise.

A statement issued by VRA in Accra said the situation meant there would be a reduction in power supply by 100 megawatts during the peak periods from 6.00 p.m. (1800 hours) to 10.00 p.m (2200 hours).

“VRA has therefore requested the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to undertake a load management exercise in various parts of the country, until the situation returns to normalcy,” the statement said.

VRA said discussions were, meanwhile, ongoing with the suppliers of the gas to increase supply from the current 40 million standard cubic feet per day (mscf/d), to the contractual volumes of 100 mscf/d, to enable the company to operate all its thermal facilities.

“We assure our valued customers and the general public that VRA is committed to ensuring the supply of adequate power to all its customers, and regret any inconvenience caused,” it added.

VRA generates power mainly through hydro and thermal sources.

http://www.businessghana.com/portal/news/index.php?op=getNews&news_cat_id=&id=159702

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Ghana to plunge into deeper darkness
Last Updated: September 14, 2011, 3:33 pm


The load shedding schedule of five days power, twelve hours off currently ongoing nationwide is to be reviewed to further reduce strains on the Akosombo Dam.

Officials of the Volta River Authority and the Electricity Company of Ghana have been meeting to review the situation and are expected to announce a new load management programme soon.

Sources at the Volta River Authority tell Joy News, the blackout period of 12 hours per every five days of supply could extend to 24 hours while the number of days per supply could reduce to between 3-4 days.

The reason is due to the ever dwindling water levels in the Akosombo Dam.

Sources at the VRA and the ECG have told Joy News the Akosombo Dam has reached a critical level and risks total closure if the load management is not reviewed immediately.

The Director in Charge of Operations at the ECG, Andrew Tonto Baffuor said discussions among the stakeholders would have to be completed first and all necessary clearances secured before the announcement of the new tighter programme would be made but maintained that the situation is very critical.

Originally the review was to be made at the end of the month, however Mr. Baffuor says it cannot wait any longer.

He said presently the Lake has less than two feet of water for critical operations and the review will have to be immediate in order to forestall any serious problems at Akosombo.

“Hopefully within a very short time we should be able to come out…If by the end of the day we finish with the decision the public will be informed. If we have to come out tomorrow or Sunday or Monday, we will definitely come out but definitely not going to be too long.”

He said a lot of scenarios have been laid out on the new load management schedule and the meeting would decide which will be more appropriate.

http://edition.myjoyonline.com/pages/news/200703/2781.php

ACCRA : New Load Management Programme to Commence

The Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) would commence a new load management cycle of four days, effective Wednesday March 28, 2007.

Under the four-day cycle, customer groups will go off once during the day for 12 hours and once during the night for 12 hours after which the cycle will be repeated.

A statement issued by the VRA and ECG on Saturday said the load management programme had been reviewed as part of the strenuous efforts to manage the current situation following the acceptance of the recommendations made by the VRA and ECG to the government.

It said the programme would be reviewed every two weeks to monitor the impact of the measures being taken and appropriate changes made where necessary.

"It would be recalled that on August 26, 2006, VRA and ECG announced a load management programme with the primary objective of arresting the depletion of the Volta Reservoir and facilitating its recovery," the statement said.

Regrettably, it said, the Volta lake level had continued to drop at a higher rate than expected and it was at an elevation of 237.78 feet as at today, Saturday, March 24, 2007.

It said the VRA and ECG had continued to address the current situation in order to secure normal supplies to all customers and as part of the process, government had actively collaborated and provided support to the two utilities with the procurement and installation of some emergency power plants located in Tema.

Out of this, the first 50 MW had been installed and was being tested prior to commencement of operations by the end of this month with the remaining 86MW would be brought into service by the end of April.

The statement said the immediate objective of the VRA and ECG for all these actions was to ensure the little water left was stretched through to the end of June when the major rainy season in the Volta reservoir catchment area would commence.

It said without this intervention, the Akosombo Hydro station would be shut down before the end of April and called on consumers to intensify their energy conservation activities

http://www.ghanadistricts.com/news/?read=3796

Ghana’s firm announces more power outage
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Wednesday, 04 April 2012 00:00 Editor News - Africa

GHANA’S major power producer, Volta River Authority (VRA), has urged the citizenry to brace up for three more months of erratic power supply in the West African country, Xinhua reported yesterday.

After going through a month of load-shedding between February and March, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), major power distributor and supplier, has announced yet again a new schedule after a request by VRA.

Like the previous one, the newly announced schedule also starts from 1800 GMT to 2200 GMT, nationwide within groups A, B, C, D, and E, zones of power supply across the country.

However, Getrude Koomson, Head of Public Relations at the VRA, told Xinhua in a telephone interview that the demand for electricity supply had surged beyond generating capacity, hence the need to shed some load to stabilise the system.



“Recently, the power system has become vulnerable and unstable and when the three utilities met, they decided that there were enough reserves and redundancy difficulties in the system; so it was decided to embark on load-shedding to manage the shortfall in supply,” Koomson explained.

According to her, when these demands are all met, the system breaks down due to inadequate capacity available to the nation. Koomson added that the current exercise would persist till June or July when the VRA was expected to bring two plants of 200 Mega Watts (MW) total generating capacity on-stream.

A new project at Aboadze, near Takoradi, 218 km west of the capital, is expected to be completed between June and July, which will add 100 MW to the generating capacity. She said another 100 MW plant of the VRA, which broke down last year at Aboadze, had had its faulty parts taken away by the manufacturers for replacement by the middle of the year.

The first batch of load-shedding was attributed to a shortfall in gas supply from the West Africa Gas Pipeline in Nigeria.

The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is on contract to supply 130 million cubic feet of gas to the West African sub-region. But, according to Group Executive Director of Gas and Power at the NNPC David Ige, only 70 million to 80 million cubic feet were being supplied due to some constraints, adding, however, that Nigeria had resumed gas supply to Ghana.

The Ghanaian government promised to increase the country’s generating capacity from the current 2000 MW to 5000 MW by 2015, taking advantage of gas resources in the country’s oil fields to build more thermal plants.

http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=82099:ghanas-firm-announces-more-power-outage&catid=98:africa&Itemid=557