350,000 Ghanaians to benefit from bulk power supply project at Pokuase – MiDA

As part of efforts by the government to address power outages and low voltages with electricity supply in Ghana, work is progressing steadily on the $60 million Bulk Supply Point (BSP) project which commenced at Pokuase in April this year.

The BSP forms part of the $498.2 million Ghana Power Compact II, funded by the United States Government through its agency, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).

Chief Operations Officer of the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), Kwame Kpekpena told Citi News that the project, when completed in January 2021, will supply electricity to 350,000 people in Accra.

“In technical terms, the project will stabilize the transmission network. But coming down to how individual Ghanaians will benefit from this project. Those of you living in this area, in the Northern part of Accra, you experience a number of outages, a number of low voltages in a number of places. This project will help to address that so we will have more reliable supply of power,” he stated.

“The project as part of the compact will also address technical losses and the reason this is important to us is that in the end, if we reduce that, Ghanaian consumers will be paying less for electricity.”

Meanwhile, Member of Parliament for the Trobu Constituency, Moses Anim noted that he expects quality work to be executed and proper maintenance culture ensured after completion to benefit future generations.

“It's a social intervention that we should thank MiDA and the American government anybody who is contributing to this project. We are expecting quality. We are expecting that a scope of work would be done. We are expecting that after the project has been handed over, maintenance culture will be there. We are expecting that this project will live its life time so that posterity will come and meet the project so that we will all benefit from it,” he said.

The Pokuase Bulk Supply Point project which was launched in May 2019 will according to President Akufo-Addo become the largest Bulk Supply Point in Ghana upon completion.

The Ghana Power Compact of which this project is a part of is helping the government transform its power sector through private sector participation as well as key policy and institutional reforms that will provide more reliable and affordable power to Ghana's businesses and households.

On his part, the Energy Minister, John Peter Amewu at the launch of the project, outlined the importance of having the contractors who have been assigned to the task to meet the 2021 deadline for the projects' completion.

Widespread power outage

Electricity supply has been inconsistent in most parts of the country in recent times due to different challenges including recent rainstorms.

This comes on the back of the full takeover of the electricity retail business in the country by ECG following the termination of the PDS concession agreement.

The most recent incident happened on Tuesday, November 26, 2019, where parts of the country were plunged in darkness .

Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) blamed the widespread blackout on technical challenges. According to the Company, the said challenges were “beyond its control.”

The Ghana Grid Company also blamed “power swings” for the power outage. In a statement, they said the problem arose from the Cote d'Ivoire interconnection with Ghana.