TWO NEW HYDRO-ELECTRIC DAMS TO BE CONSTRACTED

The Minister of Energy,Felix Owusu-Adjepong has revealed that negotiations with Brazil to finance the development of two hydro-electric projects with a sum of $555 million has come to fruition. The projects which are located at Juale on the Oti River and Pwalugu on the White Volta is to supply addition power to the lready existing ones. He said Ghana intends to supplement its power production with hydro-sources and work has already started on the Bui Hydro-dam which is funded by the China with an amount of about $670 million. Constructional works is currently underway at the Bui Dam which is expected to completed by 2014 and will generate about 440 megawatts of electricity. This was diclosed at the Meet-the-Press series in Accra.The feasibility studies have been completed by Pato Company Limited, a private local entity, for the development of the Ankobra, Pra and Tano rivers for generation of hydro-power. The Minister added that potential hydro-power site can porduce a total of 843 megawatts with a total annual energy generation of 3,547 cubic watts per hour. The four major river basins are Black Volta, White Volta, Oti, Tano and Pra. Thermal plants are being constructed by the government and over four main independent power producers, with the latter expected to produce a total of about 811 megawatts.He stressed that upon completion of all the power plants under construction, the total installed power generation capacity in Ghana will reach 3,500 megawatts by 2013. "This is still less than the target of 4,000 megawatts but will provide us with some reasonable level of comfort in the medium term. The Government will continue to collaborate with the private sector to ensure that additional power plants are developed to meet the target.