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The Volta River Authority (VRA), Ghana’s premier electricity power generator, has asked for a competitive priced electricity tariff regime that incorporates financial compensation for its various ancillary services.

Mr Kweku Andoh Awotwi, Board Chairman at the VRA’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Tuesday, stated: “We are of the considered opinion that the time has come for the mandated institutions to consider and incorporate the provision of ancillary services in the tariff methodology”.

The issue of non-cost reflective tariff and inadequate liquidity, he said, continued to affect the Company’s finances, adding, “It is our expectation that the Government will address these critical issues through its ongoing initiatives.”

The AGM, dubbed the Ninth Stakeholders Interface, updated the Stakeholders on the Company’s operations for the year, looked at the critical issues, including the financial statements and the way forward.

Mr Awotwi said a key priority of the Authority was to collaborate with Government and other interested stakeholders to develop and convert their simple cycle plants into combined cycle operations.

The target plants include the Kpong Thermal Power Station and the Tema Thermal One Power Plant.

It also aims to transfer ownership of the T3 Power Plant to VRA to enable it to re-tool it and operate it in a combined cycle mode with a private sector partner.

Mr Awotwi said generation from their hydro sources increased marginally from 5,034GWh in 2017 to 5,044GWh, contributing 37 per cent to the National power generation.

“Though we could not achieve our thermal plant availability targets, we successfully restored the second unit of the Takoradi Thermal plant (32G2)making available to the system over 100 MW of power which has been unavailable due to prolonged maintenance activity”.

The Authority’s decision to operate on natural gas led to a 30.5 per cent increase in the use of the resource, he said, pointing out that the completion of the Takoradi-Tema Interconnection project would enhance the thermal operations in the Tema enclave.

He said the VRA had a commitment to expand its portfolio of renewable energy projects and was in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy, the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission and the Nuclear Power Institute to support the development of Nuclear power in Ghana.

Mr Emmanuel Antwi-Darkwa, Chief Executive of the VRA, said the Authority was on the path to financial sustainability and had since 2018 not received financial support from the Ministry of Finance.

“VRA is restructuring into a new era in 2021 and have put plans in place to ensure development in a sustainable manner, sustain our position as a market leader, improve operational and project implementation efficiencies, advance internal and external business processes and build, nurture and develop their human capital,” he said.

Mr Steven Asamoah-Boateng, Chief Executive Officer at the State Interest in Governance Authority, (SIGA) commended the VRA, saying, they had provided a very hopeful financial outlook.

“We are looking beyond the PDS/ECG era,” he said, and pledged SIGA’s support to the VRA’s transformational efforts.