OREANDA-NEWS. July 17, 2012. Mitsui & Co., Ltd. ("Mitsui", Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, President and CEO:Masami Ijima), as a consortium member consisting of Mitsui and KEPCO Engineering& Construction Company, Inc. ("KEPCO E&C"), entered into the full turnkey contract for the engineering, procurement and construction("EPC Contract") of the expansion of the Takoradi T2 power plant in Ghana with Takoradi International Company ("TICO"). The EPC contract was signed on Dec. 28, 2011, and after receiving final approval from the Ghanaian Parliament on Jun. 22, 2012, it has been effective since Jul. 12, 2012.

This project is to add a steam turbine (120MW), two heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs) and a sea water direct cooling system to the existing two gas turbines (110MW each) of Takoradi T2 power plant, which have been operated by TICO. Through the above work, the existing T2 simple cycle power plant will be converted to combined cycle, and its gross capacity will be expanded to 340MW. The total value of the contract is approximately USD 260 million and the construction work will last for about 28.5 months to be completed in November of 2014.

Due to rapid economic growth followed by growth of domestic consumption and demand of electricity, Ghana is facing a chronic electricity shortage. In addition, while nearly 40% of the overall Ghanaian capacity relies on thermal power plants, most of these thermal power plants are high-cost and low-efficiency simple cycle power plant. As a result, improving the electricity shortage and reducing generation costs are both urgent issues in Ghana. Since this project will increase generation capacity using the waste gas coming from existing facilities, it will contribute to optimize efficiency of energy use and shortfall of power supply as well as to alleviate the environmental load in Ghana.

This EPC Contract is the first collaboration between Mitsui and KEPCO E&C. Through this opportunity, the both companies will continue to focus on developing more power generation projects in Ghana and Africa.