Ameri plant relocation to Kumasi is a good

A former Minister for Power under the erstwhile Mahama administration, Dr Kwabena Donkor, has lauded the relocation of the Ameri Plant to Kumasi.

Speaking on NewsFile, the Pru MP said “It doesn’t add to generation but there is a role for it. It stabilizes the grid…it enables GRIDCo to reduce its transmission losses.”

He explained that there were plans by the NDC government under President Mahama to have a generation plant in the middle belt but there was no gas pipeline there to feed the plant with gas. According to him, the NDC could not undertake the project before it was booted out of office in 2016. He said if not for the NDC government losing the elections in 2016, generation in the Middle Belt would have been achieved earlier than now.

“A gas pipeline had gotten to Prestea but there wasn’t a gas pipeline to Kumasi and therefore a physical relocation at that time would not have made sense without fuel. Fortunately, unfortunately, the people of Ghana decided that we should leave the scene so there was a truncation of the process. Other than that, generation in the middle corridor would have happened earlier.”

Explaining the impact of the relocation, Dr Kwabena Donkor said the relocation does not add any generation capacity. He, however, noted that it would help stabilize the system.

“It also helps stabilize the grid. You see, there is a certain balance that the grid must have. If there is a situation where until now we have the Eastern and Western corridors in terms of generation and even then there is a delicate balance, you cannot over-generate from one corridor with nothing coming from the other. The grid will trip.”

“The National Inter-connected Transmission System (NITS), there is a certain balance needed. So having generation in the central corridor will help that.”

Commenting on the cost, the former Power Minister said he has not seen the amount of work done so cannot comment authoritatively on the cost. He, however, said if it was just the transportation and civil works that were done, the purported $38 million is quite high.