ABOADZE THERMAL PLANT UNDERGOES MAINTENANCE (PAGE 20, OCT 23)

THE Takoradi Thermal Power Plant at Aboadze in the Shama District in the Western Region is currently undergoing its first major maintenance works after nine years of its operation.
The maintenance works, estimated at $12 million, are intended to maintain a high level performance, improve reliability, efficiency, as well as mitigate the environmental impact of the plant’s operation.
The works include the removal, testing, refurbishing, calibration and installation of heavy equipment such as compressor rotor, turbine rotor and generator rotor.
Repair works involving modifications, fabrication, painting and rehabilitation of the exhaust silencers and balance of plant equipment are to be carried out.
The filters in the inlet filter house, inlet silencers and combustion cans are also scheduled to be replaced during the major maintenance.
There will be relocation of electrical circuits as part of the modification works, to ultimately improve upon efficiency of the combustion turbine.
Planning for the current major maintenance started over a year ago due to the volume and complexity of works involved and it is scheduled to be completed in 27 days using the two-shift system for 12 hours per shift.
Plans are also underway to have the plant converted into a more efficient combined cycle power operation with the addition of 110MW steam turbine generator, with associated heat recovery steam generators.
When the expansion is completed, it would not only add significantly to the national generation capacity, but would also increase the plant’s efficiency from about 33 to 55 per cent, reducing cost of generation, improving the environment, as well as generating significant employment and technological transfer opportunities for the people in the Western Region and the country as a whole.
The 220MW single-cycle Takoradi Thermal Power Plant is a joint venture between TAQA Energy Company of Abu Dhabi and the Volta River Authority (VRA).
The plant is being operated by TAQA Generation International Operating Company (TGIOC), a subsidiary of TAQA, which owns 90 per cent of TICo and the VRA, which owns 10 per cent.
Briefing journalists after inspecting the progress of the on-going maintenance works at Aboadze, the General Manager of the Takoradi International Company (TICo) and Managing Director of TAQA West Africa, Mr Osafo Adjei, said per world benchmarks, a typical major maintenance of GE gas turbine should be completed in 42 days.
He explained that the special arrangement and efforts to complete all the works under world benchmarks were geared towards cutting down time and more importantly continuing to provide the quality supply of reliable power to the good people of Ghana.
Mr Adjei said TGIOC had performed several scheduled outages such as combustion inspection and hot gas path inspection in partnership with General Electric (GE), which has been contracted by TICo on a long term service agreement.
“In all the scheduled outages, TGIOC has optimized the outage schedule in order to maximize availability,” he said, adding, “The cumulative availability of T2 Plant is 94 per cent, which is higher than the industrial benchmark for single cycle base operation”.
The general manager further explained that the longest and most technical of scheduled inspection on gas turbines was the major inspection which was on-going.
Mr Adjei called on all stakeholders to support the national efforts to expand the thermal power plant.
He said the employees had worked for 2,600 days without any lost time accident, and promised to keep the track record untainted, even during the period of the major maintenance works.
That, he explained, was because both management and employees continued to own the safety programme in place and adhered strictly to it, saying “Safety is everyone’s business here”.
The Plant Manager-T2, Mr George Niako, who led media practitioners to inspect the maintenance works, explained that about 90 per cent of the filters were rusted as a result of marine effect.
He said the equipment also was undergoing the major maintenance to reduce emission from the plant so that the environment was not polluted.
Mr Niako further explained that the silencers were being replaced with new ones to reduce the noise level to about 65 decibel.