COUNTRY: GHANA DELEGATES:KODUA MICHAEL,LARRY ZAHIR
Ghana’s supply of electric power is obtained primarily from hydropower generated at the Akosombo and Kpong dams. Hydropower has become the leading source of renewable energy. It provides more than 50% of all electricity generated by renewable sources in Ghana. Other sources including solar, thermal, and biomass account for less of renewable electricity production. There are several favorable features of hydropower. Anywhere rain falls, there will be rivers. If a particular section of river has the right terrain to form a reservoir, it may be suitable for dam construction. No fossil fuels are required to produce the electricity, and the earth's hydrologic cycle naturally replenishes the "fuel" supply. Therefore no pollution is released into the atmosphere and no waste that requires special containment is produced. Since "water is a naturally recurring domestic product and is not subject to the whims of foreign suppliers," there is no worry of unstable prices, transportation issues, production strikes, or other national security issues. Modern hydro turbines can convert as much as 90% of the available energy into electricity. The best fossil fuel plants are only about 50% efficient. In Ghana, hydropower is produced for an average of 0.5 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). This is about one-third the cost of using fossil fuel or nuclear and one-sixth the cost of using natural gas," as long as the costs for removing the dam and the silt it traps are not included. Efficiency could be further increased by refurbishing hydroelectric equipment. An improvement of only 1% would supply electricity to an additional 300,000 households. Ghana’s electricity consumption has been growing at 15 to 20% per annum for the last two decades. It is projected that the average demand growth over the next decade will be about 8% per year. As a result, consumption of electricity has reached 9,300 GWh in 2010 with hydropower contributing about 6400Gwh. This projected electricity growth assumption has profound economic, financial, social and environmental implications for the country. Electricity accounts for about 15% of the nation’s final energy consumption. With a customer base of approximately 1.8 million, it has been estimated that 55-60% of Ghanaians, including 15-18% of the rural population, have access to grid electricity, with a per capita electricity consumption of 358 kWh. All the regional capitals have been connected to the grid. Electricity usage in the rural areas is estimated to be higher in the coastal (27%) and forest (19%) ecological zones than in the savannah (4.3%) areas of the country. In 2010, Ghanaians has consumed 9,300 GWh of electricity. It is estimated that about half of this amount is consumed by residential consumers for household uses, while commercial and industrial users account for the rest. The majority of the customers are in service territories of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Northern Electrification Department (NED) and they are regulated. Deregulated consumers such as mines and aluminum companies account for one third of total consumption. One industrial entity, the aluminum smelter VALCO, can account for most of this amount when it is operating normally. Access to electricity in Ghana is 57.7% compared to an average of 17.9% for West Africa. . However, over 80 % of the domestic electricity supply is consumed in the cities and urban towns of Ghana. There is also the potential for electricity generation from renewable energy sources such as Thermal, solar, biomass and small hydro. But some of these sources however have not yet been exploited to any significant degree for electricity generation. The firm capability of the hydro system of about 6400 GWh represents over half of the projected domestic consumption for the year 2010. This implies that at least 30% of Ghana’s electricity requirement in the year 2010 is provided from other renewable resources like thermal and solar . On the basis of the studies carried out, the next generation addition is the completion of the expansion of the Takoradi power station. This involves the addition of 110 MW steam unit in order to complete the combined cycle arrangements for the TICO power plant. In the medium to long term, up to 600 MW of additional generating capacity will be required by 2012. It is planned that this additional capacity will be met through the establishment of thermal as well as hydro plants such as the Bui hydro project. Electricity is also obtained from other renewable energy sources, in particular, solar energy in remote rural communities There are over 8,000 off-grid photovoltaic (PV) systems installed nationwide as at 2010 with a total capacity is about 20 MW.. In order to secure a sustainable and cost-competitive fuel source, Ghana is involved in the West African Gas Pipeline (WAGP) project for power generation. The WAGP project involves the construction of a natural gas pipeline of about 600 km to supply natural gas from Nigeria to meet the energy requirements of Ghana and other West African countries. The countries presently involved in the project with Ghana are Nigeria, Benin and Togo. The WAGP project, which will provide a source of clean fuel for VRA’s thermal generating facilities and other future thermal plants, is expected to deliver the natural gas fuel at relatively lower costs than the current light crude oil. It was expected that the first gas will be delivered to the Takoradi plant by December 2006 but due political instability and other factors in the region it was rescheduled.