The Early Power consortium has received Parliamentary approval from Ghana's government to sign a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA), plus a five-year extension option, with the Electricity Corporation of Ghana (ECG) for the 400 MW greenfield Bridge Power project.
Early Power, comprising power generation company Endeavor Energy, Ghanaian trade firm Sage and multinational General Electric (GE) through its GE Power division, expects to reach financial close on the project in December.
The project will be developed in two phases – 194 MW in Phase 1 and 206 MW in Phase 2 – in the coastal city of Tema, the biggest port in Ghana.
Bridge Power is expected to start producing 144 MW of power within the first six months to help the country overcome near-term power shortages.
“Bridge Power is a first of its kind in Ghana. We’ve customised the project to provide quick and reliable energy production for Ghanaians in order to assist Ghana’s economic growth and create jobs,” says Endeavor CEO Sean Long.
With Ghana’s economy having grown by an average of 7% a year over the past 16 years, the provision of additional, reliable power will further bolster the country’s economic success.
Ghana is estimated to need at least an additional 2 000 MW of power generation over the next five years.
Bridge Power will not only provide more than 12% of the country’s planned power generating capacity by 2020, it will also enable the growth of industrial sectors, light manufacturing and agroprocessing.
Endeavor will provide the majority of the equity investment required to accelerate the project.
It was also manage construction and then operate and maintain the plant, while Sage will be responsible for the fuel supply for the project.
Sage created the gas-to-power fuel solution for the project, using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as the primary feedstock for the power plant.
In addition to LPG, which is cleaner and cheaper than light crude oil, Bridge Power can also be fuelled by natural gas and diesel. This aspect ensures the project can provide reliable baseload generating capacity and inject some much-needed diversification into the Ghanaian generation mix.
Across the two phases of the project, GE will provide 400 MW of power generating capacity through nine GE gas turbines and two purpose-built GE steam turbines in two separate combined-cycle gas turbine configurations.
Additionally, GE will provide a financing solution for the capital required for an acceleration of the first phase of the project, as well as a long-term service agreement for the life of the project to ensure reliability and power plant availability.