AKOSOMBO DAM IN DANGER

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Monday, April 11, 2016

The Akosombo Hydroelectric Dam is in danger because it is operating below its capacity as more pressure is exerted on it.

As at last Friday, the water level had plummeted to an all-time low 238.47 feet (about 72.686 meters) instead of the required minimum operating level of 240 feet (about 73.15 meters) needed to power the turbines.

Even with the low water level, the operators of the power plant - the Volta River Authority (VRA) - are powering all the six turbines to the chagrin of the engineers, raising concerns about the possible collapse of the plant.

Interestingly, around this same period last year, the dam was operating at 241.87 feet (73.723 meters) which was above the minimum level.

DAILY GUIDE sources reported last Friday that VRA had been compelled to operate all the six turbines, putting more strain on the plant.

It is unclear if the turbines were opened due to the visit of the Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, but a source insists that government is unable to purchase crude oil for the plants in the Tema power enclave, forcing the VRA to over-rely on Akosombo despite the low water level.

President Mahama was said to have shaken his head in disbelief, seeing the precarious situation, when he visited the dam site with the visiting Ethiopian leader on Friday.

According to sources, most of the power plants in Tema are down because there is no money to purchase light crude to power them, since gas supply from Nigeria has dropped drastically because of liquidity problem.

Information picked up on the VRA website indicated clearly that all is not well with the dam as the national treasure is operating well below minimum level.

However, the VRA was tight-lipped on the matter when this paper wanted to get more information about the situation.

Operating Level

According to the VRA, the maximum operating level is supposed to be 84.73m (278 feet) and the maximum water level ever recorded, 84.25m (276.41feet), was on November 2, 1974.

Atuabo Gas

The shutdown of the Atuabo Gas Processing Plant, which feeds most of the plants in the Takoradi power enclave, coupled with huge debts owed by the VRA and other entities as a result of the government’s inability to make payments on time, have seriously affected power generation in the country.

Deputy Power Minister John Abdulai Jinapor last week gave a hint that Ghana was heading back to the power crisis which crippled the economy and collapsed many industries, leading to massive lay-offs.

Dumsor

He said the dreaded load shedding (popularly called dumsor) was most likely coming back in two weeks’ time, attributing it mainly to the shutdown of the Atuabo Gas Plant.

Strangely, President John Dramani Mahama told Parliament in his State of the Nation Address that his government had overcome the four-year-old power crisis in view of a fairly stable power supply since January this year.

“We are going to have technical meeting and we will take it from there. The exact impact I am unable to tell now until we finish that meeting; but clearly we must protect the integrity of the hydro dam. You can run them for a period of time but you can’t risk running all of them beyond a certain period,” Mr Jinapor said.

“In the next few weeks, it is a tight situation for us and we can have some deficit. It is very likely we will have deficit… it’s likely.

“As tough as the decision may be, if it is the right decision; we won’t hesitate to take the right decision… I prefer to rest the dams and some of the turbines for the next two weeks than to risk running them for the next two weeks for whatever expediency and then have a major problem ahead. I think that we should also think long-term and so we will take the right decision. We wouldn’t compromise the integrity of the dam,” he asserted.

The Deputy Power Minister said the government had all infrastructures in place to ensure the power crisis came under control, saying, “I did indicate that from the power sector, we have put in all the mechanisms, all the machinery to ensure that we resolve it… We have more than we need in terms of generation capacity. Until we control our fuel, until we bring all those Gas fields or at least those that can fire the thermal plants on, we still have a challenge.”

GRIDCo’s Position

The Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) issued a statement last Friday saying the intermittent disruptions in power supply were temporary, even when the minister had given the hint of possible return to dumsor.

According to GRIDCo, the situation had also been compounded because Nigeria was only providing about 10 percent of the required supply of gas from the West African Gas Pipeline. Ghana owes Nigeria Gas through the West Africa Gas Company (WAPCo).

GRIDCo said engineers from the utility companies would continue to “work around the clock to keep disruptions to the barest minimum and restore full supply to customers as soon as gas delivery resumes.”

It further indicated that the initial completion of maintenance works on the FPSO scheduled for last month had been rescheduled for completion in the last week of April 2016.