[ 2016-11-16 ]

Bui Dam engineering ‘bad’: TOR MD
The Bui Dam has not been of much benefit to the
country because of the poor decision that informed
its construction, Kwame Awuah-Darko, Managing
Director of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), has
said.

The erstwhile Kufuor administration initiated the
construction of the hydroelectric dam almost a
decade ago after the country came out of a
crippling nationwide power crisis in 2006-2007.

However, Mr Awuah, who is also the Managing
Director at the Bulk Oil Storage and
Transportation Company (BOST) said given the
amount that was sunk into the project, the dam
should have been generating some 600 megawatts to
add to national capacity, instead of the 90 it
currently produces.

“As a rule of thumb, one million dollars is
equal to one megawatt, so anytime you make an
investment of a million dollars, you should be
able to add one megawatt generation capacity to
the country. Bui Dam cost us $600million. It has
an installed capacity of 290 to 300 megawatts, but
available capacity is less than a hundred
megawatts. So that single policy cost the
country…600 million dollars and only gives us 90
megawatts because the engineering was bad,” he
told Paul Adom-Otchere on Good Evening Ghana on
Metro TV, aired on Tuesday November 15.

He said this was because the reservoir behind the
Bui Dam was very small compared to the Akosombo
Dam, whose source of water for power generation
stretches as far as Burkina Faso, Ghana’s
northern neighbour.

“Bui is a very small reservoir, which means you
can only run it for peaking periods, which is in
the evening, and you can only generate 90
megawatts,” Mr Awuah-Darko added.

According to him, if that amount had been invested
in thermal plants, the country would have had 600
megawatts of power, obviating the need for
emergency power it presently relies on.

He continued: “So, an opportunity that we had
between 2000 and 2008 was squandered and President
Mahama, being the gentleman that he is, says: ‘I
will take responsibility for it.’ The reality
that Ghanaians need to know is [that] the seeds of
this power crisis [are] a result of wrong
investment and underinvestment in the power sector
between 2000 and 2008, but it’s OK, we’ve
fixed it and we’ll continue to improve the
country for the people of Ghana.”

Source - Classfmonline

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