By:Africaoilgasreport

The Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo has commissioned a new 200MW combined cycle power plant in the country’s industrial heartland.

Early Power Limited’s Bridge Power Plant is located in at Kpone, in the Heavy Industrial Area of Greater Accra Municipality, in Ghana.

Powered by natural gas as primary fuel, the Bridge Power Station can deliver up to 200 Megawatts “and it is engineered to be one of the most operationally flexible combined cycle plants in Ghana”, says GE Vernova, which supplied five TM2500 aeroderivative gas turbines for the facility. “The commissioning of the plant underscores the country’s focus on enhancing energy security, reliability, and accessibility for all Ghanaians”.

Expected to boost the country’s thermal generation capacity by 7% , the project is the first phase of a planned 515MW power plant with a projected cost of $1.2Billion at Kpone.

Ghana utilises around 350Million standard cubic feet of gas per day, the third largest domestic gas market in West Africa. Most of it is for power generation. The average cost of gas is higher than $7 per thousand standard cubic feet, one of the continent’s highest.

The new gasfired plant will sell power to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) under a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) backed by a Put Call Option Agreement (PCOA) with the Government of Ghana (GoG). The PPA and PCOA agreements were approved by the Ghanaian Parliament and executed in September 2016, with financial close occurring on November 22, 2018. Under the PCOA, the GoG guarantees certain obligations of ECG in the event of a termination of the PPA by either party. This is the first time this innovative financing arrangement was used in Ghana. Under the PPA, the Project is to deliver power in stages:

Stage 1, a 200MW combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant comprises five (5) GE Vernova TM 2500 gas turbine , five (5) once through steam generators (OTSGs), one (1) steam turbine unit, an air-cooled condenser (ACC) and associated balance of plant. Construction was started in December 2018 by the EPC Contractor, Metlen, formerly Power Projects Sanayi Insaat Ticaret Limited Sirketi (Metka). It was completed and delivered to ECG for commercial operations on 18th July 2024.

Stage 2, also a CCGT power plant, has a Target Effective Date of September 2025 and a 48-month construction schedule, commercial operations date (COD) is estimated for September 2029. Stage 2 output will be up to 315MW.

This combined cycle power plant features a configuration that uses GE Vernova’s trailer mounted aeroderivative gas turbines, a steam turbine and a Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) to generate up to 50% more electricity from the same amount of fuel compared to traditional single-cycle plants.

The project is owned and developed by Endeavor Energy, a US independent power producer focused on Africa and Andaris Energy Limited, a wholly owned Ghanaian energy investment company (collectively, the Sponsors). Endeavor Energy was founded in 2013. It says it  “works with host Governments on Just Energy Transition programmes to meet  baseload energy demands in West African countries”.

Endeavor is owned by Denham Capital, Fund VI, an energy and natural resources-focused global private equity fund. Endeavor Energy says it has, along with its co-sponsors, invested a total of $1.2Billion in Ghana’s energy sector, including the 200MW Amandi TCE Power Plant at Aboadze in Takoradi. The Stage 1 project cost of $611Million was wholly funded by the sponsors and lenders.