I�m Not Sleeping - Prez Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama last Monday promised that work on the $850 million Gas Infrastructure Project at Atuabo in the Western Region is expected to be completed by the end of this year. He noted that the project would enable the country to transport natural gas from the Jubilee Fields for processing and for the generation of power by the Aboadze Thermal Plant. When Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) from the national gas project is finally on board, it will also meet national demand and eliminate periodic gas shortages in the country. President Mahama disclosed these when he addressed a section of NDC supporters at Aboadze after inspecting works being carried out at the 132 Megawatts (MW) Combined-Cycle Power Plant Project (T3) at the Volta River Authority (VRA) power station at Aboadze, near Takoradi. According to President Mahama, the government was committed to ensuring that the timelines given in his state-of-the-nation address were met. �Like I said during the state-of-the-nation, we have not been sleeping, we have been trying to bring as much generation as possible into the system and T3 is one example of it. We started in 2010 and it is largely complete. It�s just two percent of work left to have it fully operational,� he stated. The T3 project, which is estimated to cost over $185 million, is being financed with a loan from the Canadian government, Societe General of Canada and Investment Bank. The plant, which comprises four gas turbines, heat recovery steam generators and two steam turbines, will run on light crude, diesel oil and natural gas. The president mentioned that the government was committed to increasing the current installed power generation capacity of the country from about 2,000 MW to 5,000MW. �This is in line with government�s vision of making electrical energy available to industries and household as well as reducing poverty,� he said. He indicated that government was also undertaking some thermal power plant projects in some parts of the country to add another 500MW to the country�s power generation portfolio. President Mahama expressed satisfaction with the progress of work so far, and expressed the hope that by the end of this year, the country�s power generation, transmission and distribution capacity would improve tremendously. Steve Budger, Director, Thermal Generation of the Takoradi Thermal Power Station, mentioned that the expansion Project (T3 Project) was expected to add 132 megawatts of electricity to the national grid. He indicated that the T3 would run on both crude oil and gas to generate power and that authorities of the Aboadze Thermal Plant expect it to be fully operational by February ending. He stressed that currently, the T3 was producing about 80 megawatts of power and added that 50 megawatts of electricity was expected to be added by the end of this month. Ghana has, over the past few months, been subject to load-shedding exercises that have affected both residential and commercial electricity consumers. In his state-of the-nation address to Parliament last Thursday, President Mahama promised to resolve the crisis. As a show of his commitment to the issue, he toured the Aboadze Thermal plant where the T3 project, currently undergoing testing, is expected to generate 132 megawatts by the end of this month. Seek Help Meanwhile, former President John Agyekum Kufour has urged President Mahama to seek help from Ghana�s neighbours in his efforts to resolve the current water and power crises. He said it was important for President Mahama to demonstrate leadership by exploring all available options as he struggled to tackle the crisis. Mr Kufuor, who was speaking on Accra-based radio station Hot FM yesterday, said the President could go beyond assurances and do more to ensure a lasting solution to the problem. For instance, he related, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf once sought Ghana�s help in tackling a power crisis that hit her country after the Liberian war. He also recalled personally going to Nigeria to �beg� former President Olusegun Obasanjo to continue supplying the nation with crude oil to avert what would have been a major power crisis when the Nigerian government stopped supplying oil to Ghana. He therefore urged President Mahama to seek help from neigbouring countries in the hope that such a move would yield a quick solution to the current crisis and bring relief to the people.