THE COUNTRY is now in extra deficit of about 100 megawatts of electricity following an explosion at the Aboadze Thermal Plant near Takoradi yesterday.
The explosion occurred at a circuit breaker pole at the switchyard of the Takoradi Combined Cycle Thermal Plant.
Consequently, the steam turbine of the exploded circuit breaker has been shut down while the problem is being fixed.
According to officials at the thermal plant, the absence of the steam unit may have only minimal effect on the current load management exercise since load demand during the weekend is lower.
Explaining how the unfortunate incident occurred, Alfred Sackeyfio, the Plant Manager indicated that the side of the plant, known as the Switch yard, where power was evacuated to the national grid, was where the fire started.
According to him, yesterday at about 8:00am, the steam turbine was in operation and generating 90 megawatts of power while two other gas turbines were also in operation.
He indicated that all of a sudden there was an explosion which made the steam turbine trip offline.
'Upon visiting the site of the explosion we saw that the circuit breaker has had one of its phases exploded and there was some localized fire on the ground,' he added.
Mr. Sackefio noted that quickly, the company's in house fire engines were brought in to quench the fire. He mentioned that it would take some time for the damaged circuit breaker to be repaired.
He added that a new working breaker would be taken from a different line and installed at where the explosion took place to restore the steam turbine.
The Plant Manager pointed out that the explosion did not cause any major destruction to the main plant.
He however indicated that a worker at the power station, upon hearing the loud noise and seeing the flashes of light became traumatized and was rushed to the hospital.
'No one was injured as had been perceived. The said worker was treated and discharged.
He is feeling better,' he explained.
Mr. Sackeyfio disclosed that management had launched full scale investigations into the incident to unravel what caused the explosion and the lessons the company could learn from it.
The Aboadze Power Station consists of three power plants.
The first power plant operated by the Volta River Authority has an installed capacity of 330 MW combined by two 110 MW GE Frame 9E combustion gas turbines, and one 110 MW steam turbine generator. It is fuelled primarily by light crude oil.
The second plant has a capacity of 220 MW, with a future expansion up to 330 MW. It is owned and operated by Takoradi International Company, a joint venture of the Volta River Authority and CMS Generation, a subsidiary of TAQA
The third plant would be a 132 MW combined cycle power plant. It would consist of four gas turbines, heat recovery steam generators and one steam turbine. The plant would be operated by the VoltaRiver Authority.
FROM Emmanuel Opoku, Aboadze
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