Ghana Grid Company ‘s assets grows to over GH¢40m
The assets of the Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDCo) grew by GH¢87.9 million in 2009, compared to the total asset base of GH¢40.6 million in 2008.
Mr Emmanuel Appiah Korang, Board Chairman of GRIDCo, told the first Annual General Meeting of GRIDCo held in Accra on Monday that the company also made significant strides to reduce the net loss to GH¢6.86 million as compared to the 2008 net loss of GH¢17.50 million.
Mr Appiah Korang, an Energy Management Consultant, said the company was strategizing to be ready to reliably transmit all the 5,000MW of generation capacity Government had planned for Ghana to attain by 2015.
GRIDCo is also being guided by government’s policy objective to ensure that at least 85 per cent of the population across the country had access to electricity by 2015, he added.
GRIDCO, which transmits power produced by the Volta River Authority (VRA), in 2009 finalized a five-year Capital Investment Programme, specifically to modernize the network and expand the infrastructure to keep up with growth in demand.
“As we pursue our investment agenda, we will continue to review our expansion programmes to achieve operational efficiency and Government policy objectives for the sector,” Mr Appiah Korang said.
He said in implementing its projects and programmes, GRIDCo would endeavour to be an incubator that would “promote acquisition and transfer of technology to local companies and experts in order to ensure that there is a high local content in the development of the sector”.
The total energy transmitted during 2009 was 8,784.067 Giga Watt hour (GWh). This was made up of 8,017.455 GWh transmitted for domestic consumption and 766.612GWh in exports to Compagnie Ivorienne du Electricite (CIE), Communaute Electrique du Benin (CEB), SONABEL and the Burkina Faso Mining Company at the Youga Mines.
Mr Charles Darku, Chief Executive, said the key to creating shareholder value was through the development of a strong balance sheet with positive cash flows.
“Thus, Management’s strategy during the year was to achieve this through revenue growth and operating efficiency, supported by disciplined use of investible capital and prudent working capital management.”
Mr Darku said GRIDCo’s main focus in 2009 was to stabilize the over-aged national grid to enable the company to deliver better services to all customers.
“We also brought together our skills and talents in innovative ways, so as to consolidate and deepen the operationalization of the company as a viable business enterprise,” he added.
He said GRIDCo worked with the Energy Commission and other stakeholders to develop and launch the National Electricity Grid Code during the year.
It also commenced preparations of the Market Rules to guide the operation of the proposed Wholesale Electricity Market.
Mr Darku described 2009 as a challenging year, given the transition arrangements with the Volta River Authority, the operationalization of GRIDCo and perennial resource shortages of the recent past.
“The results attained in the course of the year for our shareholder showed that despite the difficulties, GRIDCo ended the year on a positive note,” he said.
Source: GNA