K1TPP: Nowhere in AMERI MoU says gov’t should retain the name after takeover – George Ayisi

The Communications Director of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), George Ayisi, has dismissed the hypocritical and double standards assertions against the Akufo-Addo government for renaming and relocating the AMERI power plants to Anwomaso as Kumasi 1 Thermal Power Plant (K1TPP).

He said there was no part of the AMERI agreement—the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)—with the government of Ghana that stipulated that the power plants could not be renamed.

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has derided the government for turning to the AMERI power plants, which they demonised, to mitigate power challenges.

But the NPP communicator, Mr. Ayisi, disagreed, indicating that the Akufo-Addo government made a prudent decision to “use what we have” to solve the country’s problems.

Speaking on TV3 New Day on Friday, April 19, George Ayisi said, “The government of Ghana owns the plants and we signed an agreement unless, of course, honourable Armah-Buah can tell me [that] in the MOU they signed with AMERI, it’s enshrined there that the name should be retained after the takeover by the government.”

“This government could have gone to the open market to purchase these plants and come and install it…it can be done,” he told Ronald Walker on The Big Issue segment of New Day.

“But the previous government has already done this, and we needed to make good use of it…so we need to utilise what we have and bring efficiency to bear on the transmission processes and then make good use of it for Ghanaians to benefit from that. That’s what we are doing,” he argued.

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President Nana Akufo-Addo officially commissioned the Kumasi 1 Thermal Power Plant at Anwomaso in the Ashanti Region on Wednesday, April 17, 2024.

K1TPP, formerly AMERI plants, is set to address voltage and power quality issues in Kumasi and the northern parts of Ghana by boosting system voltages and thus improving overall system stability, according to the Volta River Authority (VRA).

Background

The Kumasi 1 Thermal Power Project came into being after the expiration of the BOOT agreement between Ameri Energy Limited and the Government of Ghana on the erstwhile Ameri power plant.

In 2022, the plant was handed over to the GOG and subsequently transferred to the VRA.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Energy together with the VRA took a strategic decision to relocate the plant to Kumasi and since then, the project has been named the Kumasi 1 Thermal Power Project and funded entirely from the VRA’s IGF.

The project is being executed in two phases; the first phase which is being commissioned on Wednesday commenced in May 2023 and involved the relocation of the first six TM2500 units with a total generation capacity of 150MW.

The second phase will be completed in June 2024 to increase the plant’s capacity from the 150MW to 250MW.

The project is being executed by VRA’s in-house team of engineers, with support from some selected service providers.

This is a testament of Ghanaian ingenuity and the belief of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government in Ghanaian capacity.