Even though the project has not been completed fully, Ghana has managed to export around 50 to 65 megawatts of power to Burkina- Faso through its existing 161 KV network. Whenever the interconnecting project is fully completed, Ghana should be able to supply 100 megawatts of power or more to Burkina-Faso.

Mr Abdul Samed Ibrahim,  principal Electrical Engineer at the Ghana Grid Company limited (GRIDCO),  made this known when the World Bank Country Director Mr  Henry Kerali visited the Aboadze Thermal  Plant.

The World Bank Country Director and his team are in the Western Region for a three day visit, during which they would inspect some World Bank funded projects. The 225kV Bolgatanga –Ouagadougou Project, which is part of the West African Power Pool Project (WAPP), expected to create a power grid system across West Africa.

The project is being funded by World Bank, French Development Agency, European Investment Bank, Burkina Faso’s National Electricity Company (SONABEL) and GRIDCo with an amount of $111 million.

The World Bank has also built a 330 kilovolt (KV) sub-station at the Aboadze Thermal Plant in the Western Region to help carry bulk electricity power at a much higher voltage from the enclave to the main load centres in Accra.

The initiative by the World Bank has helped in the reduction of loses in electricity supply, since the previous161 kV lines from Aboadze were old and carried power in smaller capacity from the enclave to Takoradi through Cape Coast, Winneba and then to Accra.

With the higher voltage substation in place, electricity power is carried in bulk straight to the country's capital from the Aboadze Thermal Plant.  This is to help meet the increasing demand for electricity power in the country.

The Volta River Authority (VRA) has therefore tied its existing 161 kV sub-station to the much higher 330kv voltage substation to carry the bulk power to the country's capital and the main tie-in point at Tema.

Abdul Samed Ibrahim revealed that  Ghana was able to meet the purchase demand by Burkina Faso because currently electricity supply in the country far exceeded the demand. "Currently we have more generation capacity than we actually need in the country so we can continue to supply Burkina-Faso so long as we have enough capacity in the country", he added.

He disclosed that because there were expertise in Ghana more power generating companies preferred to site their plants in Ghana because they would get people to manage and operate them.

"We have lots of generating capacities coming to Ghana so what we need is the interconnecting lines which we are currently building to be able to supply power to  Burkina-Faso for a long time", he stressed. The World Bank Country Director, Mr Kerali described Ghana's ability to export electricity to Burkina-Faso as a great achievement.

"We are here to look at some of the physical infrastructure put in place to allow the transmission of power from Ghana to Burkina-Faso" He noted that the project was implemented within the framework of the West African Power Pool mandate to develop a unified regional electricity market.