Brazil, Ghana Pursue $300 Million, 90-Megawatt Hydropower Project on Oti River

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Brazil and Ghana have signed a memorandum of understanding to build a dam and a 90-megawatt (MW) hydropower project at Juallay, near Pwalugu on the Oti River. The dam has been proposed since 1992 and is part of the Ghanaian government's plan to add 3,000 MW of power generating capacity to the installed capacity of 2,000 MW.

The project is expected to cost about $300 million and will be funded jointly by the governments of Brazil and Ghana, with Brazil contributing $250 million and Ghana the remaining $50 million. Construction is expected to begin next year and will be undertaken by Brazilian engineering and construction companies Construtora Norberto Odebrecht SA (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Andrade Gutierrez SA (Belo Horizonte, Brazil).

The dam and hydropower scheme will be the fourth of its kind in Ghana. The Akosombo hydroelectric dam, in the Akosombo gorge on the Volta River in southeast Ghana, had a nominal generating capacity of 588 MW when constructed in 1965, but was refurbished in 2006 to a 1,020-MW capacity. The Kpong dam, downstream from the Akosombo dam, has a 160-MW capacity. A third dam is under construction at Bui gorge in Bui National Park. The Bui dam will have a 400-MW capacity and is being built by the government of Ghana and the Chinese hydro-engineering company Sinohydro Corporation (Beijing, China).

About 99% of electricity consumed in Ghana is produced by the Volta River Authority (VRA), established in 1961 to generate and supply electricity for industrial and domestic consumers in Ghana. The VRA commissioned the Akosombo hydropower project, followed by the Kpong project in 1982.

The VRA's activities are not limited to hydropower. In 1997, the Takoradi thermal power station at Aboadze in western Ghana began producing power for the VRA. The Takoradi power plant is a gas-fired, combined-cycle unit, using two Frame 9E combustion gas turbines supplied by General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) (Fairfield, Connecticut). The installed capacity of the Takoradi plant is 550 MW, with an upgrade planned to raise capacity to 660 MW.

A major project in Africa relating to hydroelectric power generation is the Western Power Corridor, designed to supply electrical energy to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, and the Republic of South Africa from hydroelectric dams located in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola.

In October 2004, the governments of the five countries concerned agreed on the WPC project, and a pre-feasibility study was completed in 2005. The project envisages a 3,000-kilometer transmission network operating at 400 kilovolts alternating current, and a total generating capacity of 3,500 MW. The two major hydroelectric power plants associated with the project are the Inga III project in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Capanda power plant in Angola.

The Inga III hydroelectric plant is estimated to have an ultimate generating capacity of 4,500 MW, but it would be dwarfed by the Grand Inga dam, another hydropower plant proposed for the same site. The project has been estimated to have the capacity to produce up to 39,000 MW and would be the world's largest hydroelectric power project if completed. The New Partnership for Africa's Development and the South African power company Eskom Holdings Limited (OTC:ESKAY) (Johannesburg, South Africa) have proposed to start the Grand Inga project sometime in 2010.

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