Works Starts on 350 MW Cenpower Kpone IPP project

Vice President Amissah-Arthur breaking the ground with an escavator

From Edmund Mingle, Kpone

Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur yesterday cut the sod for the construction of a 900 million-dollar Independent Power Plant at Kpone, with the aim to boosting the country’s power generation.
The plant, being built by Cenpower Generation Company, has the capacity to generate 350megawatts of power that would increase the country’s generation capacity by about 14 per cent.
The first Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) power project, the plant is expected to be completed in 32 months. It would operate a tri-compatible system that has the ability to use gas, light crude oil and distillate to generate electric power.
The project is being funded by a consortium of international financial institutions, and the ownership of the plant would be transferred to the Electricity Company of Ghana after the expiration of the 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).
Vice President Amissah-Arthur said execution of the project, was part of government’s efforts to increase power generation to meet the high demand for electricity in the country.
“This couldn’t have come at a better time,” he said adding that the challenges in the power sector called for the active involvement of the private sector to produce more electricity to meet both industrial and domestic demand.
“We need the lights on,” the vice President said, and called for more independent power producers (IPPs) in the sector.
He noted that there were currently 16 power projects at various stages of implementation, and hoped that their completion would significantly increase the country’s power generation capacity, currently at 2,800 MW.
Vice President Amissah-Arthur assured the project managers of the government’s cooperation and support towards the successful completion of the project, and also urged them to cooperate with the host community for peaceful co-existence.
Nana Sam Brew-Butler, Chairman of Cenpower Generation Company Limited, said that among other benefits, the project incorporated a collector sub-station that would serve other projects in the energy enclave at Kpone, adding that the sub-station would eventually be transferred to the Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo).
He said the construction stage would create employment for about 600 Ghanaians, after which about 70 jobs would be created during the operational stage.
He said as one of the largest African-led IPP projects in Africa, the project had been adjudged the best African Power Deal 2014 by the Financial Planning Institute in London.