Takoradi International Company

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The Takoradi Thermal Power Plant (“TTPP”) is located on the south-western coast of Ghana, approximately 15 km north-east of Takoradi. TTPP was originally planned as two separate 330 MW combined cycle combustion units. Takoradi 1 (“T1”) has been operating in full combined cycle mode since 1999. This unit is owned and operated by the Takoradi Power Company (“TAPCO”), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Volta River Authority (”VRA”), a state owned and operated power utility company. In 2000, the Takoradi International Company (“TICO” or the “company”), which is about 90% owned by the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (“TAQA”) and 10% by VRA, completed construction and began operating the second combustion unit, Takoradi 2 (“T2”), at TTPP. These units have been operating in simple cycle mode and TICO currently propose converting T2 to operate in combined cycle mode with the addition of a 110 MW steam turbine and generator (hereafter referred to as the “T2 expansion”). This would increase the capacity of T2 to 330 MW, and that of TTPP from 550 MW to 660 MW. Key features of the T2 expansion include the addition of two heat recovery steam generators, a 110 MW steam turbine generator, two 60 m stacks and a seawater desalination plant. In addition, a once through cooling water system will be installed to support operations at both T1 and T2 thereby removing reliance of T2 on freshwater. The cooling system will include a sub-sea intake structure located 2.5 km offshore, intake conduits, onshore works including a pump house and intake and discharge chambers, and sub-sea outfall conduits and diffusers situated approximately 1.2 km offshore. This final phase of T2 will increase the generating capacity of the facility without any additional fuel requirements. The total project cost is approximately $325 million and IFC is considering a loan of up to $70 million to TICO to support the T2 expansion. T1 and T2 use either LCO or gas to generate power. LCO is transferred to on-site storage tanks via a mooring buoy located some 4 km offshore. Gas is supplied directly to site via an existing off-take pipeline from the West Africa Gas Pipeline (“WAGP”), a regional gas pipeline that supplies gas from Nigeria to Ghana, Benin and Togo. VRA is responsible for the fuel supply, along with the treatment and storage of fuel, water and the treatment of waste water. All power generated at the site will be transferred off-site via existing transmission lines that have sufficient capacity to accommodate the additional energy to be generated by the T2 expansion. In addition to the existing T1 and T2 operations and the planned T2 expansion, a further new unit is currently being constructed by VRA, termed Takoradi 3 (“T3”).