Bui dam spillage won’t affect power generation – Authority

The Bui Power Authority has explained that its intended spillage is to carry out testing of the spill gate of the dam. The Director of Resources Environment and Estates of the Authority, Patrick Kwakye said the spillage will enable the Authority check the performance of the spillway gate of the dam. In the statement, they also revealed they will be working closely with the “National Disaster Management Organisation, District Municipal Assemblies and the security agencies in the sensitization of the communities living downstream from the Bui dam to Buipe.” They expect the sensitization to create the necessary awareness to ensure the inhabitants downstream that no lives and property will be lost during the period of the tests.
Mr Kwakye explained that following their takeover of the plant last year, protocol dictated that they check all the equipment put in place for the running of the plant. He stated that all the equipment put in place for the running had been checked except the spillway gates since there was not enough water in the dam to affect such a test following the hand over last year. “Now all the equipment, including the generators have been checked except our spillway gate.

Now at the time we took over the dam, we didn’t have enough water in the reservoir so we could not perform the test.” He stated that the need to assess the functionality of the spillway gates was to make sure they worked ahead of an occasion when they actually needed to use them. “As we have taken over dam, we need to check whether the gates will work at the time that we need it”. Mr. Kwakye also allayed fears that scheduled spillage would affect power generation.

 He explained that the expected discharge of water from the dam will not affect the accumulated inflows for the operations of the Bui Generating Station in the coming months. “The gate will be open for a maximum of 30 minutes so this will not affect our power generation. It will also not affect the water level,” he said. Earlier this week (December 10) The Bui Power authority released a statement announcing it intended to carry out testing of the spillway gates sometime between December 14 and December 2015.