Tie-in of pipelines for thermal power plants 98% complete

The Ghana National Gas Company Limited says civil works to interconnect its pipelines to that of the West Africa Gas Pipeline in a bid to transport natural gas to power thermal plants within the Aboadze and Tema enclaves are over 90 per cent complete. “98 per cent of the work is completed and we are ahead of [completion] time,” Head of Communications, Ernest Owusu Bempah, told journalists Tuesday. In the wake of the recent unannounced disruptions in electricity supply to many parts of the country, the Energy Ministry announced power generating plants within the Tema enclave had to be shut down to allow the tie in of the pipes. The tie-in works, it explained was to enable the transportation of surplus natural gas from Takoradi in the Western Region to Tema in Greater Accra to power the plants in the area in a bid to ensure affordable electricity for Ghanaians. The Ministry pleaded with Ghanaians to give engineers 12 days to complete the tie-in works.

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Completion of the tie-in works will ensure sufficient supply of natural gas to fuel the power generating plants, as well as bring an end to the ritual of ‘no gas from Nigeria’ and ‘pressure is low’. A week after government gave the 12-day deadline, Mr Owusu Bempa who toured the Ghana Gas metering plant in the Aboadze Power enclave with journalists Tuesday said all major works on the tie-in exercise were completed. [caption id="attachment_120009" align="aligncenter" width="968"] Mr Owusu Bempah[/caption] “We have been able to do the major one to link up and push up gas to VRA and to the West Africa Gas Pipeline to the eastern enclave”, he said, noting they were currently sending about 110 million cubic feet of gas to generate about 600 megawatts of power. The tie-in of gas pipelines of the West Africa Gas pipeline at the Takoradi Regulating and metering Station at the Aboadze enclave is to enable a reversal flow of gas from the Atuabo gas plant to the VRA plant at Aboadze and then to the Tema power enclave. By 3news.com|Ghana]]>