President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has commissioned a 45 kilowatts Tsatsadu Micro Hydro Generation Station at Alavanyo in the Hohoe Municipal Assembly of the Volta Region.

The project, which was designed, developed and constructed exclusively by engineers from the Bui Power Authority, was funded through the internally generated funds of the authority for social economic development of Alavanyo and its adjoining communities.

Addressing a crowd of Chiefs and people from the area at the site of the Tsatsadu Water Falls, which was on top of steeped mountain, President Akufo-Addo expressed delight that the project, which was one of the 22 sites identified during Kufuor’s administration as potential energy generation points, had seen the light of day.

Research

President Akufo-Addo said the project the first of its kind in the country would be used as a research site for the development of other hydro projects in the country and commended the engineers for preserving the environment and the ecology, noting, "Nothing has been destroyed in making this project".

He commended the chiefs and people of the area for maintaining peace and unity to the extent that these days the country hardly hear of the usual Nkonya and Alavanyo land clashes.

President Akufo-Addo urged the chiefs and people in the area to vote massively for John-Peter Amewu, the NPP Parliamentary candidate for Hohoe and, him, as the President of Ghana.

Origin
Tracing the origin of the project which dates back to 2005, when the Government of President John Agyekum Kufuor, entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and International Network on Small Hydro Power of China (IN-SHP) to undertake studies geared towards the development of Small Hydro Power potentials in the country.

He said they identified 22 of such sites but the Mills-Mahama Administration abandoned them when they assumed the reigns of power.

The project was initially designed as a 30kW stand-alone system, but was redesigned and upgraded to a 45kW grid-connection system based on the outcome of the additional studies.

Development

The Paramount Chief of Alavanyo, Togbuiga Tsedze Atakora was full of praise for President Akufo-Addo for the numerous development projects in the area and the country in general which was impacting positively on lives of people of the area.

He said the people were particularly happy that through his leadership and the support of other institutions the recurring problems of Nkonya Alavanyo clashes was not happening.

Singing

"Mr President, the only two things God deprived me of are dancing and singing. If I had a beautiful voice and good dancing skills I would have sung and danced foe you to appreciate you", he added.

Bui

The Chief Executive of Bui Power Authority, Mr Fred Oware, said with the passage of the Bui Power Authority Act, the authority was ready to ensure that it delivered on its mandate to provide a lot of renewable energy across the country.

Micro Hydro

The 45kW Tsatsadu Micro Hydro Generating Station, situated on the Tsatsadu Waterfalls, is a run-of-river scheme, which did not require the formation of a reservoir to operate.

It consists of a concrete diversion weir, an intake structure, diversion channel, a forebay, steel penstock, a powerhouse and a transmission line which ties the electricity generated into the local distribution grid.

The weir diverts part of the river flow through an intake channel into the diversion channel.

The diverted water goes through a 300mm diameter penstock to the base of the hill where the powerhouse, which houses the turbines and the generator, is located. The water drives the turbines and flows out through the tailrace channel and back into the downstream of the waterfall.