This $280 million thermal plant in Ghana has been left idle for almost 6 years

March 14, 2019 12:09 PM

A $280-million thermal plant in Takoradi in the Western Region of Ghana has been left idle for about six years due to operational failures.

Part of the thermal plant

The plant, which was constructed to generate 132 megawatts (MW), has since the breakdown not added a single megawatt to the national grid.

In April 2013 after it was inaugurated, the plant worked for about six months, generating between 60 and 70 megawatts (MW) of power, before it broke down and has since not been fixed.

According to reports, no activity is currently going on there.

The government of Ghana took over the project following successful completion work financed by the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) in 2013.

After about six months of operations, the project broke down. It was later realised that the breakdown was due to the feeding of the plant with unfit fuel, which resulted in a problem known as hot-gas corrosion.

That development led to a tussle between the Ghana government’s technical team and the contractors, who kept shifting blame as to who provided the off-spec fuel for the plant.

Sources have revealed that the problem has been to CCC and the contractor about six years ago, however, nothing has been done about it.