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06.03.2009 General News

ECG Team Tours Facilities

By Daily Guide
ECG Team Tours Facilities
06.03.2009 LISTEN

Officials of ECG THE MANAGING Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Mr. Jude Osarfo Adu-Amankwah, and some directors of some of the company's head offices, toured the Tema facilities of the company.

The tour was to afford the management team the opportunity to be abreast with the level of expansion works done at the various projects currently under constructions, what was left to be done, and also to see materials and equipments procured by the company for its projects currently ongoing within the southern sector of the country.

Conducting the team round the sub-station B at Community 11 in Tema, Mr. Cephas Gakpo, Director of Engineering of the ECG, noted that the facility which has been under renovation during the last six months has had its capacity doubled from 20NVA to 40 NVA, and added that other works done at the facility to upgrade it to standard state had cost the ECG about half a million dollars.

Continuing with the tour, Mr. Gakpo showed both members of the management team and some press men present, some materials and equipments procured by the company and mentioned that they were worth not less than $ 10 Million. He noted that the procured materials and equipments would be used in renovating projects; to have them upgraded to a higher standard, compared to what it was within the southern sector which comprised of Volta region, Ashanti region, Eastern region and Central region. He mentioned others as Western and the Greater Accra region.

At the sub-station A at Community 1 in Tema, Mr. Gakpo remarked that the cost of the project at the station was much lesser than that of B where the transmitter was changed. He stated that the projects when completed would help halt the incessant power outages in areas under the southern sector experiences.

Mr. Samuel Boakye Appiah, Divisional Manager of Urban Project of ECG at the sub-station A, which also houses the company's training school, mentioned that Polymer Base Insulators or the armless would soon be deployed for use nationwide. He explained that the armless, which was under observation, had been proven to be less cheaper, occupies little space, was safer to work on and could be used in urban areas, as compared to the conventional ones which are expensive and dangerous for workers of ECG to handle. He added that it would help safe the ECG the cost of transmitting power.

Briefing the media, Mr. Jude Osarfo Adu-Amankwah remarked that the tour had indeed made them understand the extent of works done at the various sub-stations as well other projects the ECG had embarked on.

He explained that a new Bulk Supply Point (BSP) would be constructed along the Tema-Accra motorway to help ease the pressure on the existing ones at Achimota and Dzorworlu, all in Accra.

He told press men that the company had secured $94 million from the Ghana Energy Development Access Programme (GEDAP), which is a World Bank project and $100 million from the government of Ghana, while the ECG was using suppliers' credit to raise additional capital to complete the project.

Mr. Adu-Amankwah noted that the project was meant to halt the frequent power outages in the major towns within the next 12 months. He mentioned $990 million as the figure the company would require to fully replace some of its existing equipments and upgrade some of them to be able to guarantee uninterrupted power supply. He was confident of raising the amount with the support of the government and donor agencies as well as funds from its internally generated resources, to rectify other problems in the system.

He disclosed that the serious overload of the existing facilities was attributed to the growth in demand for power supply in major towns and explained that physical expansion had not kept pace with the phenomenon.

He concluded that while the projects were still ongoing, the power outages would continue and pleaded with consumers to bear with the company to ensure its successful implementation.

The team later visited the company's other facilities within the Tema metropolis.

From Razak Mardorgyz Abubakar, Tema

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