Ghana Grid Company (
GRIDCo) is gearing up to assume a central role in the regional power market as the West Africa Power Pool (WAPP) begins to take form.
Established in 2000, WAPP is a cooperation of the national electricity companies in West Africa under the auspices of ECOWAS. WAPP members are committed to establishing a reliable power grid for the region and a common market for electricity.
In September 2010, GRIDCo began transmitting through the WAPP transmission line for the first time. The company has been building the Ghana component of the new 330kV line which goes from Aboadze to Tema and then onto Momehagou in Togo in collaboration with the
Volta River Authority (
VRA). The project has also called for new 161 kV and 330 kV sub-stations at Aboadze and Volta, in addition to the installation of 200 MVA auto-transformers at both ends of the line.
Created to help boost competition by separating responsibility for generation and transmission from the
VRA, GRIDCo had already established transmission links with neighboring countries Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Benin and Burkina Faso. Now, these interconnections will serve as part of the WAPP, which aims to provide the West-African sub-region increased power accessibility, availability and affordability.
Among other things, benefits that GRIDCo expects to derive from the project are increased power transfer capability and improved system voltages, as well as reduced overall transmission losses.
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