Dr Ebenezer Tahoe, the Deputy Chief Executive Finance Officer of the Volta River Authority (VRA) says the Authority will introduce electric buses (E-buses) to convey its workers to and from work in Akosombo and Akuse in 2022.
The decision to introduce the E-buses is aimed at digitalising all the processes of VRA and turning Akosombo into a smart city, Dr Tahoe explained.
Speaking to newsmen on the sidelines at the VRA’s 2021 End of Year Thanksgiving Service at the Kpone Thermal Power Station at Community 25, Tema, Dr Tahoe explained that in 2022, VRA would build a data centre in Akosombo to use IT to leverage all of its processes to compete effectively, both locally and internationally.
The data centre would facilitate the deepening of digitalising all of VRA’s processes to enable the Authority to do a lot more generation into the export market to increase its revenue and increase its share in the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) on the local market.
He said the Covid-19 pandemic slowed down the programmes of the Authority in the year under review, however, Dr Tahoe expressed the confidence that fully going digital would help VRA consolidate its gains.
Employing IT in the VRA’s operations, he said it would further put the Authority ahead of all the Independent Power Producers (IPPs), all of which could not beat the former in the supply of electricity in 2021.
Dr Tahoe said the VRA, in 2021, supplied 53 per cent of the electricity to the country. That translated into 12,000 gigawatt hours.
Earlier, Ing Darlington Ahuble, the Plant Manager of Kpone Thermal Power Station, on behalf of the Director, Thermal Generation, Ing Emmanuel Antwi-Darkwah told the gathering that 2021 was filled with successes in the area of operations, finances and challenges, which were mainly borne out of Covid-19, which slowed their activities.
He observed that with lessons learnt from Covid-19 pandemic and the changing landscape in power generation, VRA, from 2022 would turn Akosombo into a technology hub, to be more efficient to remain in business.
He said it was vital VRA embraced digitisation as its major enabler of Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence.
He said it is for this reason that VRA would be introducing electric vehicles to additionally be in line with the climate change agenda of reducing carbon emissions.
Lastly, he said VRA’s employment of technology from 2022 would enable it diversify its decision of adding solar, wind and biomass to the energy mix, as clean sources of energy.
He reminded the staff to continue to adhere to the Covid-19 health protocols to stay alive.
VRA celebrated the End of Year Thanksgiving Service on the theme: ‘VRA…60 years of grace…O give thanks to the Lord; for He is good and His mercies entirety forever’.
