Michelle Hazel, Project Manager of Karpower, has explained that the relocation of the 470 megawatts Powership to the Western enclave in August 2019 to utilise the country’s indigenous natural gas was a good move.
The Powership is a floating power plant, either propelled or barge mounted, operating on both natural gas/liquefied natural gas (LNG) and heavy fuel oil, providing the most competitive all-in cost of electricity and can be delivered in three to six months.
“The project, since its inception, has affected both the micro and macro economies of the fall-out communities and the country in general,” she said.
She said under micro benefits, more than US$3million of direct investment was put into site preparation and hiring of sub-contractors for daily operation, employment to locals, social interventions, capacity-building and technology transfer.
While on the macro benefits, she said there has been a base load plant of 470MW added to the national grid, off-take of Ghana’s indigenous natural gas to meet the government’s upstream commercial obligations as well as spending US$8million to pre-finance the construction of the transmission lines.
She was speaking in Takoradi to update the media on their operations within and outside Ghana. Topics discussed included environmental compliance, measures, Karpowership CSR activities, projects stakeholder engagement, among others.
She said Karpowership currently operates in three continents and 15 countries with a unique power generation enterprise.
Ms. Sandra Amarquaye, Corporate Communications Manager at Karpowership, added that under the company’s corporate social responsibility, it has undertaken various social intervention projects – including awarding scholarships to brilliant but needy students.
The projects, she said, fall under the UN SDGs: good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure, and sustainable cities and communities.
She said since 2015, the company has undertaken various corporate social responsibility activities focused on bringing some sustainable development goals into reality.
“As an organisation, our aim is to contribute directly or indirectly to all the goals, starting with providing clean and affordable energy that we believe will support the sustainable growth and development of all economies,” she said.
Under gender equality, quality education and good health and well-being, she said the company has instituted a scholarship scheme that paid fees for 21 brilliant but needy students of the Engineering Department at Takoradi Technical University (TTU).
“Other projects by Karpowership include marking the International Day of Education with UNESCO at the Applied Technology Institute in Accra, organising mentorship programmes for students in their fall-out communities, refurbishing a pre-school, and building an ICT lab in their catchment areas,” she added.
Ms. Amarquaye said under the company’s Girl Power Project, the company, has organised skills training programme for female students at the Accra Girls’ Senior High school, donated items to fishmongers, organised a mentorship programme for 10 Basic and Senior High Schools from the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis, and commemorated International Women’s Day with an all-female tour with the Engineering students of TTU.
She concluded that the company also held an empowerment training programme for fisher folks in collaboration with the Fisheries Commission, teamed up with their communities of operations for intermittent clean-up exercises, yearly donations to Muslim and Christian communities, and yearly tree-planting exercises under the Green Ghana Project.
