What are the priorities for GRIDCo in terms of asset maintenance and upgrades?
WILLIAM AMUNA: If you look at Ghana, around 85% of the population has reliable access to electricity. A major reason for this is a widespread energy network spread across all 10 regions within the country, and there are plans to improve infrastructure to more districts. Significantly extending transmission is an achievable target, which will be helped by the construction of backbones or major transmission lines.
Areas in the Western Region that do not yet have facilities or access to electricity will soon see this goal realised. Mini-grids are also being built within rural communities that supplement off-grid electricity with generators and solar power in order to fulfil demand.
Most importantly, major repair work and refurbishment of substation infrastructure is being undertaken through the Substation Reliability Enhancement Project. For example, the Achimota Substation located in Accra now has a state-of-the-art control room, after the removal of old installations that were built several decades ago.
Very soon Ghana will have excess power and the ability to export it to the international market and more importantly, to neighbouring ECOWAS countries such as Côte d’Ivoire, with which a bilateral power exchange programme is already in place.
Ghana has been exporting power eastward to Togo and Benin, and has cross-border cooperation with both Togo and Burkina Faso. By 2017 power will make its way northward to Burkina Faso, and in the next couple of years, north-west to Mali as part of the arrangement under the West African Power Pool (WAPP). The collective remains a very important tool for the progress of the sub-region.
How effective is the interconnection of Ghana’s grid to neighbouring countries?
AMUNA: Some countries in the region have been experiencing recurring problems related to power, especially Nigeria, which has seen a dramatic decrease in oil and gas production from the Niger Delta region. Landlocked countries such as Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso normally find it difficult to generate electricity, so Ghana has pooled its resources together with others in order to facilitate transmission from one part of the sub-region to another.
Ghana is strategically positioned because it has a number of community resources, which can fortunately be shared with others. A transmission line has already been constructed from Aboadze and the port of Takoradi to the borders of Togo and Benin. The Togolese and Beninois are constructing their part of the line. There is already a line running from Ikeja, outside the commercial capital of Lagos in western Nigeria, to Togo.
By the end of 2017, there will be a dedicated line stretching around 700 km from the Western Region of Ghana to western Nigeria, the latter of which still requires infrastructure development. Connectivity will allow for power exchanges to readily take place, and subsequently Ghana will export power directly to Nigeria.
What role can the private sector play in Ghana’s transmission and distribution segments?
AMUNA: Ghana requires a number of investments, notably geared towards the WAPP for the transmission lines between Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, which are already in excellent shape. The private sector has been keen to participate in providing necessary equipment and aiding with upgrades related to substations.
For utility companies in Ghana, allocating affordable power to the private sector’s industries and small and medium-sized enterprises, both foreign and domestic, remains vital for the natural progression of the economy. Currently there are more generators, as well as independent power producers (IPPs), operating in Ghana.
In 2016 IPPs entered the Ghanaian market following a period of high utilities costs, and made profits related to off-take agreements. However, the re-establishment of fair utility costs will allow industries to reduce their overhead, resulting in a win-win situation.
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