K1TPP: There’s absolutely nothing wrong with renaming AMERI plants – Energy Analyst

Energy analyst and Executive Director of the Institute for Energy Security (IES), Nana Amoasi VII, has stated that the government did no wrong in renaming the AMERI power plants to Kumasi 1 Thermal Power Plant (K1TPP).

He said the renaming of the Africa and Middle East Resource Investment (AMERI) plants to Kumasi 1 Thermal Power Plant is “consistent” with the Volta River Authority’s naming patterns of power plants.

He further explained that Africa and Middle East Resource Investment (AMERI) brought the plants to the country under a “built, own, operate and transfer” agreement and have been officially handed over to the government of Ghana.

“There is absolutely nothing wrong with renaming AMERI,” he said on TV3 News 360, adding that the name AMERI came to be “because of the group of people that brought power plants to Ghana.”

He added that, “They agreed that they will bring the plants under a build, own, operate and transfer arrangement…the plants have been transferred to Ghana after five years of operation. And so it is no more owned in any shape by the African Middle East and Resource Investment Company.”

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“It is owned by Ghana and it’s going to be operated by the VRA,” Nana Amoasi VII stated.

“If you watch the pattern of the naming of VRA plants, you will see that this is consistent with that,” the energy analyst emphasised, indicating that “when you come to Tema, you will find the Kpone Thermal power station owned by the VRA, you will also find the Tema Thermal 1 power plant owned by the VRA.”

“You will find that in all the naming, they use the location of the plant to name it so if you have Kumasi 1 Thermal Power Plant (K1TPP) today, it is consistent with what the VRA has been doing over the years.”

Nana Amoasi VII, therefore, urged the political actors to “take the political shape out of this discussion.”

The energy analyst also maintained that it is imperative economically for the VRA to move the thermal plants to Kumasi to mitigate the power challenges in the area.

“It has been part of our energy planning strategy that reinforces the voltage within the entire grid and you find that almost all the major power plants that we have in Ghana is within the southern belt,’ he said, stressing that power has to be transmitted up to the northern zone.

A situation Nana Amoasi VII described results in low-voltage power experienced within the middle belt due to long transmission lines.

Meanwhile, the VRA has set Wednesday, April 17 for the official commissioning of the K1TPP at Anwomaso in Kumasi.