Ghana’s first hydro plant, the Akosombo Generating Station in the Eastern Region, started producing 588MW of power in 1965 from four generating units. The plant was formally commissioned by Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, in January 1966.

In 1972, two additional generation units of 324MW capacity were commissioned to bring Akosombo’s total installed capacity to 912MW. In 1982, a second hydro generating station was commissioned on the Volta River at Kpong, also in the Eastern Region. This added another 160MW capacity to bring the total installed hydro generation capacity to the current level of 1,072MW.

Ghana’s demand for electricity has outstripped the capacity of the two hydro generation systems. The shortfall in demand has therefore been met through the development of thermal power systems. A 330 MW Combined Cycle Thermal Plant was commissioned at Aboadze near Takoradi in 1999. This was followed by the addition of a further 220 MW of simple cycle plant at the same site in 2000.

This addition was developed through a joint-venture partnership between VRA and CMS Energy of Michigan, USA. A 110 MW steam plant is yet to be installed to convert the 220 MW simple cycle plant to a 330 MW Combined Cycle Plant. This would complete the 660 MW development at the Aboadze site.