GHANA TO RECEIVE POWER GENERATING SHIPS THIS MARCH

A power generating ship.

Karpowership Ghana Company, a subsidiary of Turkish Karadeniz Energy Group will deliver two temporal power generating vessels/stations to Ghana on March this year to help boost the country’s electricity needs. This will be in follow-up to an agreement signed last year June between Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the company.

The ship-floating power stations project is under the finance of Karpower, which is an independent power producer. Previously the company had signed a 10 year power purchase agreement with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

The floating power stations/vessels will dock at the Tema and Takoradi Ports and will help Ghana add 450MW of power to national grid. The total cost of the project is estimated at US$1.2bn with each ship going for US$600m.

Nonetheless, Ghana will be paying a fee of US$50m through Electricity Company of Ghana as commitment fees. According to Ebenezer Baiden, a member of the tariff team at ECG, the power ships will operate on HFO for the first five years, switching to natural gas in the sixth year.

However, the company will receive support from the Electricity Company of Ghana while the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum will supply the company with crude oil for quick power generation.

The turkey-based firm operates floating ships that supply 10% and 20% percent of Iraq’s and Lebanon’s respectively.

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