Ghanaians have to endure at least four more months of dumsor before the power expected from the Turkish company, Karpowership, can reach their homes.
The company says it’s working frantically to send its first power ship of 120 megawatts installed capacity to the country earliest by August, 2015.
The power ship will start sailing to Ghana anytime soon, hoping to be ready to discharge its service by August.
According to the owners, Karpowership of Turkey – a subsidiary of Karadeniz Holdings – the 120 megawatts capacity power ship is a stop gap arrangement pending the construction of Ghana’s barges of 450 megawatts which will be ready later in the year.
A team of Ghanaian journalists currently in Turkey at the invitation of Karpowership visited the construction site, with workers busily putting finishing touches to the smaller power ship while others were also working on the first 225 megawatts ship destined for Tema Port for the next 10 years, in line with the agreement with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
The ECG had signed a power purchase agreement with Karpowership for the supply of 450 megawatts of power.
The ECG recently brought a closure to the deal with a guarantee provided by the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) while Ecobank supported with letters of credit, making the Turkish company to launch into action.
Speaking to the visiting journalists, Orhan Remzi Karadeniz, CEO of Power Group, said the financial arrangements now sealed, the company was on its way to meet its obligations ahead of schedule. He was, however, not ready to reveal the terms of the contract, rather directing probing journalists to its client, the ECG.
He explained that the 120 megawatts power ship to be deployed indicated the company’s commitment in helping Ghana to get out of dumsor.
Dumsor ran through the company’s communication with the media, indicating that indeed, the term is gaining international acceptance in referring to energy crisis in Ghana.
Karpowership is in its seventh year of building power ships and has supplied the facility to countries such as Lebanon, Iraq, and Pakistan among others.
Mr Karadeniz said the company sees Ghana as a gateway to the African market.
Karadeniz explained that the contract period to deliver the two barges are 215 days after the financial closure of the deal for the first power ship – to be stationed at Tema Port – while the second barge, with the same 225 megawatts, will berth at Takoradi.
However, cutting the waiting period by over 50 days makes the first power ship’s arrival date from September going.
Corporate Ghana has been hit hard with dumsor, with companies laying off their workers because of high production costs.
Power Minister Dr Kwabena Donkor says resolution of the crisis is expected by the end of the year, with observers wondering what would have happened to other struggling companies which are spending so much to fuel their businesses.
Mr Karadeniz discounted the claims that their power ship was expected in April, saying that they were working according to schedule.
<<Print>>