Give us four-and-half hours to fix Aboadze - VRA

The Director in charge of Thermal Generation of the Volta River Authority has asked for just four-and-half hours for the Authority to restore one of its broken down steam turbines at the Aboadze Thermal Plant.

Ing. Steve Doku told Joy FM's Super Morning Show that hopefully by close of Tuesday, the VRA would have its full combined cycle at Aboadze on stream.

The VRA and the Electricity Company of Ghana on Monday jointly announced that one of its two gas turbines at the Aboadze Plant had developed a technical problem since Sunday, May 27.

The fault resulted in a 110MW power trip, leading to unscheduled power outages.

But Ing. Doku explained that the broken down part had been procured ahead of the fault as a result of an earlier breakdown and was on Monday evening cleared from the Customs, Excise and Preventive Services under a certificate of emergency.

Engineers at the Plant, he said, had fixed the part and were expected to test run it in about four and half hours (From 8am).
“The steam turbine tripped on a system disturbance and it couldn't go on turning gear. We set it on turning gear and there was a problem, it got broken. Fortunately we have ordered the spare and it has just arrived by DHL …and yesterday at 6 o'clock we dispatched the part to Takoradi. Right now it has been put into the machine.”

“I'm expecting that by this evening, we should have the full combined cycle operational in Aboadze,” he said.

It is about the second time in two weeks that the plant has suffered the same problem.

Ing. Doku told Joy FM that when it first occurred, the Authority ordered for the part and also got a machinist in Tema to machine the same part which worked at the first instance but the weld broke off the second time the turbine tripped.