Financial agreement for Ghanaian independent power producer (IPP) Cenpower Generation Company’s $900-million, 350 MW combined-cycle gas-turbine power plant was finalised earlier this month, paving the way for the project’s construction to begin before 2015 in Tema, Ghana.

This is according to FirstRand investment banking division Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) Nigeria infrastructure finance senior transactor, Ato Gyasi, who tells Engineering News that RMB is the global coordinator, initial mandated lead arranger, bookrunner and hedging coordinator for the $650-million debt facilities that will fund the project’s construction.

The plant, which is expected to be completed in 2017, will be Ghana’s largest IPP and will account for about 10% of the total installed capacity and for about 20% of the available thermal-generation capacity.

Construction and engineering firm Group Five will undertake the construction of the project, which will incorporate heat-recovery steam generators, diversified electrical engineering company General Electric’s gas turbines and a steam turbine from electronics and electrical engineering group Siemens.

The plant’s initial operation is expected to be on light crude oil, but it is expected that the plant will switch to natural gas once a reliable gas supply is available.

“The full output of the project will be sold to Ghanaian State utility Electricity Company of Ghana under a 20-year power purchase agreement. The project will be operated and maintained by a joint venture between trading company Sumitomo Corporation, development investment corporation Africa finance corporation and Cenpower Holdings, under a 20-year operations and maintenance agreement,” says Gyasi.

He adds that the Tema region was chosen for the project, as it is one of Accra’s key industrial areas and has all the necessary infrastructure resources, government support and permitting environment to accommodate a generation project of this nature.

Further, Gyasi states that sub-Saharan Africa and West Africa remain key operating regions for the FirstRand group and adds that RMB has on-the-ground presence in West Africa, with Ghana being one of RMB’s key focus countries.

“RMB was able to fend off stiff international competition and structure a packaged deal for the sponsors of the project, making this a truly African deal.