Bui Power Authority puts up 5MW floating solar on dam’s reservoir
The Bui Power Authority (BPA) has begun the construction of four megawatts (MW) floating solar to augment power generation at the Bui Generating Station in the Banda district of the Bono Region.
Samuel Kofi Dzamesi, the chief executive officer of the BPA, said the facility would add up to the one megawatt floating solar already constructed on the Bui dam reservoir, which covered 444-kilometre square.
The Authority had also installed a 10MW of battery system “which is like a UPS, so that any time the two powers want to meet, it will smoothen the power before it goes onto the national grid,” he said.
“Now we have to understand that the solar is in hybridisation with the hydro plant and the battery system will help in the smooth hybridisation, that is putting the solar and the hydro unto the national grids, so that the two do not meet at the same time,” Dzamesi stated.
The CEO was speaking in an interview with the media after he conducted Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Bono Regional Minister around the dam’s plant site in Bui.
The regional minister was accompanied by some members of the Bono Regional Security Council as well as the district and municipal chief executives, to the dam site to acquaint herself with hydropower generation and other operations of the Authority.
Dzamesi said the construction of the facility was expected to be completed by the end of April 2023, and it would just be hooked onto the grid to enhance power supply nationwide.
He indicated that the Authority had succeeded in constructing and commissioning 50MW out of the targeted 250MW of solar farm in the dam’s enclave and that construction work on an additional 100MW was ongoing at the site.
“Out of the 100MW we expect to finish 40MW this year, and then complete the other 60MW next year. We have also given 50MW to another contractor, though work on the project has been delayed from his side.”
“We want to move outside the Bui enclave, and we have acquired lands very close to the at GRIDCo substations at Yendi, Tamale, Buipe, Bolgatanga and Sawla so that anytime we want to put on-land solar it would be very easy to hook unto the national grid,” Dzamesi said.
Dzamesi said the Authority had signed an agreement with First Sky Company Limited to soon begin the construction of another 50MW facility at Yendi, and commended President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for his support to the BPA.
Owusu-Banahene lauded the BPA for the innovation, saying the Authority ought to be commended for giving energy on zero emissions and protecting the environment as well.
She also commended the board, management and staff of the Authority and encouraged them to do more to address the power rationing situation in the country.
