[{"bbox": [158, 106, 764, 130], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Maintain 8 PPAs for a total cumulative capacity of 2,070 MW"}, {"bbox": [158, 131, 870, 157], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Postpone 4 PPAs of total cumulative capacity of 1,810 MW to 2018-2025"}, {"bbox": [158, 158, 870, 185], "category": "List-item", "text": "* Postpone 3 PPAs of total cumulative capacity of 1,150 MW to after 2020."}, {"bbox": [84, 212, 292, 239], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## Links with EU policy"}, {"bbox": [84, 264, 304, 290], "category": "Section-header", "text": "### Team Europe Initiative:"}, {"bbox": [84, 291, 1145, 424], "category": "Text", "text": "The Team Europe Initiative *Smart, Green and digital recovery* contributes to the Government of Ghana's transformation and recovery agenda, with a strong accent on the green economy (energy efficiency) and robust policy support to the climate and environmental policymaking. The Team Europe Initiative supports the Paris Climate Agreement, Ghana's Nationally Determined Contributions, and Ghana's National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy."}, {"bbox": [84, 450, 443, 476], "category": "Section-header", "text": "### Joint Programming Ghana 2021-2027:"}, {"bbox": [84, 477, 1145, 580], "category": "Text", "text": "Ghana and the EU share common objectives for sustainable development. As Ghana is investing in its transition to a more efficient use of energy to promote sustainable growth, the EU Joint Programming 2021 – 2027 offers a mix of tools and instruments to accompany Ghana's energy sector reforms, attain financial health, and promote digitalisation of the sector."}, {"bbox": [84, 609, 1145, 742], "category": "Text", "text": "Gender considerations are factored into the programme to ensure contribution towards attaining SDG 5, which foresees the promotion of gender equality and women empowerment as key to achieving sustainable development and implementing the Gender Action Plan III (2020-2025) particularly to the thematic area “addressing the challenges and harnessing the opportunities offered by the green transition and the digital transformation” and “promoting economic and social rights empowering girls and women”."}, {"bbox": [84, 768, 1145, 928], "category": "Text", "text": "The EU, EIB, AFD and KFW have been working together in order to identify priority investments by VRA and NEDCo that could be co-financed around the following objectives: (i) improving access to basic services for the people of northern Ghana, (ii) improving the energy efficiency of the network (decrease in technical losses), (iii) improvement in NEDCo's financial situation (decrease in technical and commercial losses) and (iv) further rehabilitation of Kpong and Akosombo's dams. This last objective (iv) will be supported outside this Action in a Team Europe spirit."}, {"bbox": [84, 946, 318, 976], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.2 Problem Analysis"}, {"bbox": [84, 1016, 1145, 1097], "category": "Text", "text": "Improving access to electricity in northern Ghana is a priority for the recovery of the energy sector. Despite the high electrification rate of 85%, electrification in the north is much lower. Energy poverty is mostly affecting groups living in rural areas and people living in vulnerable situation."}, {"bbox": [84, 1122, 1145, 1306], "category": "Text", "text": "The Volta River Authority (VRA), a long-standing public company in the sector, remains a major player in power generation. The company owns and operates two of the country's main dams, Akosombo and Kpong, which were commissioned in 1965 and 1982. Akosombo was fully retrofitted and automated, but VRA is now looking at upgrading some of the equipment to make the dam more efficient. Most of Kpong dam was retrofitted over the past 5 years, thanks to EIB and AFD funding. The EIB is now looking into rehabilitating the spillway gates and the dyke in order to complete the rehabilitation of the dam, thus ensuring sustained and safe power generation for the coming decades."}, {"bbox": [84, 1334, 1145, 1389], "category": "Text", "text": "VRA also owns six natural gas-fired thermal power plants, from 80 to 340 MW (TICO), and two 2.5 and 6.5 MW solar power plants."}, {"bbox": [84, 1414, 1145, 1495], "category": "Text", "text": "VRA is also an important player in the distribution of electricity, since its subsidiary Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) holds the distribution monopoly in the North of the country (64% of the territory; 27% of the population; 8% of national electricity consumption)."}, {"bbox": [84, 1520, 1145, 1601], "category": "Text", "text": "NEDCo is structurally in deficit. Its losses reached EUR 33 million in 2019, for a turnover of EUR 81 million. Its capital is shrinking year after year, representing only 25% of the EUR 300 million balance sheet. Without its subsidiary, the VRA group would be in financial equilibrium."}, {"bbox": [1051, 1671, 1157, 1695], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 7 of 22"}]