Electricity in Ghana2016

This is election year in Ghana, and electricity supply is at probably 35%.

To start with, I am not affiliated with any political party in Ghana, so as we say in the good old USA l am going to tell it like it is.

I have been designing electrical apparatus for more than thirty years now. I first start with the then giant of the time Westinghouse Electric, worked for Ford Motor Co., Barber-Colman Aircraft Products, General Electric, Johnson Electric, and Caterpillar Diversified Products; all in the USA.

I have a blog site called Electricity Africa; where I predicted my suspicion about any and all possible things that are wrong with power generating equipment in Ghana. Well, my suspicions are being confirmed. Akosombo is producing at 400MW and not 1050MW per the original design; I do not buy the flimsy excuses about water level. What happened to the old saying "make hay while the sun shines", is Volta Lake being dredged at least once a year? I know it is very expensive, and I will say it again very expensive, but there should be a seventh generator on standby since the power generation is marginal at best.

Let's talk about what all the options as are;

(1).  Solar

(2).  Wind mill

(3).  Hydro

(4).   Landfill

(5).  Diesel

(6).  Others

I am writing this piece on Tuesday July 26, 2016, and there is NO sun in the skies over Accra, so if you have a (1) solar panel, as we say in the US, you are up the creek with a broken paddle. Solar power requires a whole bank of storage cells or batteries to store the power as DC and later to be converted back to AC for use.

Let skip and go to (3) hydro, with the "Global Warming" as we are going through, it seems like it is raining where the water is not needed, and is not raining where it is needed. I strongly believe at least 2 generators are kaput.

Let's go to (5) and look at oil, can anybody look in his or her crystal ball and tell me oil would be here forever? Oil would run out, then what?

Now let's go back to (2)  that I skipped, wind mill or wind-farm. The wind is here to stay with us, we breath it, our plants breath it, our fires need wind. A windmill turning 10 miles an hour WILL generate electricity, the higher the wind speed the more electricity generated. In Ghana, every point along the coast has wind, so you say what about places away from the coast, well, you have mountains like Aburi, Afadjato to name a few.

Finally let's look at trash, garbage, waste or whatever you choose to call it, from the smallest enclave ( village) of two people to a city of millions, waste is produce by humans, there are generator sets or gensets purposely designed and manufactured to run on the gases that come out of landfills without any purification and producing more than 1 MW of power.

When will those in power start thinking about the future and the next generations instead of me, me, me, or shall I say I, i, i?

Folks, welcome to the land of bribery and corruption, you do NOT have to look too far to see the hippos running wild in this environment. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, waddles like a duck, IT IS A DUCK.

 

     SK Simmonds

Adanfo Pa Group

sks1018@yahoo.com

Ghana-Load shedding continues

I have refrained from writing about the electricity situation in Ghana, with the hope that this piece would bring some good News. Folks, we have a SNAFU!!.The rotating blackout or load-shedding (dumsor in the local lingo) is on with a full force or vengeance.

First the powers that are, said it is the water level at the hydro dams, namely Akosombo, Kpong, and now the new two-year old facility at Bui.

There are three main things that make up a generator; the steel lamination, the magnet wire (copper or aluminum), and the insulation system. All three are vital, however the first two do not like each other and do NOT want to touch under any condition otherwise there would be fire (I guarantee this). So, to keep them apart, the third one (insulation) is inserted between them.

I will dwell on the insulation because it is like the referee in any team sport. If there is no referee, the game becomes unruly and there is chaos (which in the case of electrical equipment is fire). The insulation system (referee) is mostly made up of organic material, and all organic materials have a life expectancy. Once the weakest member of the insulation system reaches its maximum useful life, the whole generator has to be taken out of service and rebuild or refurbished. If this is NOT done, steel and magnet wire come into contact, with the end result being fire.

The insulation system as I said has a life expectancy, so forget about the thought of making it live forever, nobody can. Now that we have this straight, the question is how do you get longer life out of the insulation? First and foremost, keep it dry; and secondly keep it cool. These two are the life lines of all electrical insulation. The average life of hydro generators is 20 to 30 years.

FACT, this blogger use to work for General Electric (GE) in the USA. FACT, this blogger was at the GE plant in Peterborough Ontario, Canada in 1994/1995 when one of the generators from Akosombo was brought in for refurbishing. That is about 30 to 32 years after the initial inauguration of the hydro station in the 1960’s. Remember I said one of the units and there are six. The question is, were the other five refurbished before I got there or after I left. If any of the six units have not been refurbished since installation, the insulation system may be useless now.

Now let us go back to the crust of the present situation. I am NOT buying what is being dished out that the low water level is the cause of power generating capability. If any of the units have NOT been refurbished, that or those units are not good.

This is where I go out on the limb. Money that should have been used to refurbish all six units, have been diverted. Equipment is probably fire damaged.

Folks, the hippos are running wild.!!!

Ghana and Blackouts

It has been quite a while since my last posting. Once you finish reading this piece, I am very sure you will forgive me before I ask for your forgiveness.

Over the last five or six months, Ghana has been suffering from a disease called “dumsor”. It is not related to ebola, and not deadly to humans, but very deadly to foods that require refrigeration and to appliances air-conditioners, refrigerators, freezers, and light bulbs.

The problem is that, nobody seem to have a handle on the situation that brought on this disease, and if those who are in a position to know really know, they are NOT talking.

a  a)     Because, one is afraid of losing his or her job or

        b)    One is being threatened.

This is blogger is NOT obligated to anybody inside Ghana or outside, so I tell it the way it is. There are three distinct entities that get the electricity form production source to the average home, factory, or end-user. First, there is Volta River Authority (VRA), Gridco, Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

Power in Ghana is generated at many sources by VRA. From the generating point, Gridco takes over and send the power available to it through their transmission lines to user points. Finally, ECG hooks the end-user to their meter and the user points.

Having work as an electrical Insulation engineer for companies like Westinghouse Electric and General Electric, I know enough to say without reservation that the insulation system in motors, generators and transformers do aged, and the equipment needs to be taken out of service, stripped and parts with new insulation materials inserted into the equipment, once this is done, the equipment is virtually a new equipment, and a brand spanking new Warranty is given by the manufacturer. If you wait until the equipment break down, then,  there is going to be a possible fire, that could destroy the internal parts of the equipment, and the copper, aluminum and iron parts would be rendered useless. 

My own gut feeling is that, some equipment that should have been take out of service many years ago, were not taken out; equipment has been destroyed beyond salvaging.

Over the last seven months, there have been rotating blackout in Ghana. Initially, there was schedule that was publish in one of the dailies that tells when certain towns and cities from one end of Ghana (North to South, East to West) can happily look forward to being blacked-out (12 hour on 12 hours off). But since Christmas, that schedule is no longer publish. Blackout or “dumsor” comes without notice (minimum 24 hours off and maximum 12 hours on). Appliances get destroyed because power goes off and comes back with power surge (ready or NOT here it comes). There have been rumors that, in areas where there are top execs of VRA, Gridco or ECG residing, dumsor does NOT exsist. 

Coca cola has just announce a possible lay-off of some of their employees because regular production is being done with backup generators (which is costing them more money).

If you are contemplating doing business in Ghana, my advice is WAIT until the present situation changes. The hippos are running wild in Ghana

 Welcome to Ghana.

Nigeria Gas, and its Contractual Obligations

Nigeria Gas, and its Contractual Obligations

In my last blog, I stated that Ghana is going through its famous rotating blackout “Dumsor”, and the cause is attributed to labor unrest in Nigeria, which has resulted in the stoppage of gas to a gas-fired power plant in Ghana at Asogli (Tema).

Well, the Energy Minister from Ghana (Hon. Mr. Buah) stated on Ghana TV that he had gone to Nigeria last week to ascertain the facts about the stoppage.

I guess the Nigerians are NOT that good about hiding things and facts, because Mr. Buah caught the Nigerian Authorities at their own game, to the fact that even with the so-called labor unrest, some gas was flowing, but the Nigerians had decided to keep whatever gas was flowing to themselves (charity begins at home) regardless of any contractual obligations.  They have decided to play dumb or shall I say stupid about the fact that they have an Internationally BINDING contract that should be FULFILLED FIRST.

This is where I give Ghana a “pat on the back”. Ghana has a standing contract to supply electricity to both Togo and Benin, and no matter how bad things have been in Ghana, these tow countries have received their contractual megawatt of electricity at the expense of all Ghanaians.

Folks, does it mean Ghanaians are more honorable than Nigerians? I would not go that far. Like I said last time, these two countries are like Siamese twins, they are both West African countries, and they are both English speaking.

So draw your own conclusions.