Ghana, B. Faso, Mali sign €133.1m energy pact

Daily Graphic,(Back page) Thurs. March 18/10

Story: Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
GHANA, Burkina-Faso and Mali yesterday signed onto a €133.1 million energy interconnection project to link the three countries.
The 742-kilometre project will transfer an initial 130 megawatts of energy from Han in Ghana, to Bobo Dioulasso in Burkina Fasso and Sikasso and Bamako, both in Mali.
The project, expected to be completed within 45 months, will be financed by the three countries and will be facilitated by the West African Power Pool (WAPP) Secretariat.
A communiqué that will commit the three countries to the project was signed by the ministers of energy from the three countries in Accra yesterday.
Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Energy, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, who represented the sector minister, said the natural gas from Ghana’s oil find would constitute the critical fuel for the power generation.
He said presently, a 330kV Coastal Backbone Project, being financed partly by the Korean government, was under construction at the Aboadze-Prestea-Kumasi Transmission Line, to help address the country’s serious transmission capacity inadequacies.
Alhaji Fuseini said the backbone project would form part of the planned infrastructure required for the operation of the proposed West Africa grid network being undertaken by the three countries.
He said the network in the northern part of the country was being strengthened with the construction of a 161kV transmission line linking Tumu, Han and Wa and explained that the project, scheduled for completion by the close of 2013, would tie into the Ghana-Burkina Faso-Mali interconnection project.
He said the generation of power from Ghana’s oil production would help to give a predictable and sustainable energy price for all in the sub-region.
He called on the various utility companies in the three countries to develop common technical standards that would ensure that the systems put in place operated on common standards.
The Secretary-General of WAPP, Mr Amadu Diallo, in an address said the project, which had minimal environmental and social impact, had been approved by the various environmental protection agencies in the three countries.
He said WAPP, after the adoption of the document, would commence with the preparation of bidding documents, mobilisation of funding, as well as a supplementary work to establish an institutional framework.