In the months ahead, Genser Energy will commission two major infrastructure projects: the Gas Conditioning Plant in Prestea and the Takoradi Natural Gas Liquids Export Terminal.

The milestones will mark a new chapter for the indigenous energy company.

But before that chapter opens, another closes, quietly, deliberately, and with the same discipline that defined it.

After nearly 15 years, Daniel Tettey Ayi, Vice-President of Operations, is retiring. His career, stretching from the Tema Oil Refinery to Oman Refineries and

Petrochemicals Company and finally to Genser, reads like a masterclass in Ghanaian engineering excellence.

A journey across continents

Mr Ayi began his career at Tema Oil Refinery in 1984, spending 21 years mastering utility systems, boilers, steam turbines, and power plant operations.

In 2005, he took his skills to the Gulf, joining Oman Refineries & Petrochemicals Company (ORPC) in Sohar, where he operated combined-cycle gas and steam turbine generators and desalination plants.

When Genser Energy came calling in 2011, he returned home.

“I applied and was accepted, then came back. I had to come back,” Mr Ayi recounted in an interview.

That return would shape the next decade and a half of Ghana’s distributed power landscape.

Building reliability, one plant at a time

Over his tenure, Mr Ayi oversaw the commissioning and operation of five power plants, ultimately managing more than 200 megawatts of installed capacity.

Under his leadership, the plants consistently maintained reliability levels above 97 per cent, a benchmark that kept mines running and industries powered.

He served as Plant Manager for GP Tarkwa, GP Wassa, GP Chirano, and GP Damang, and led the team that commissioned and later decommissioned the GP Unilever combined-cycle facility.

He also supervised the 430-kilometre gas pipeline project’s pre-commissioning and commissioning activities.

But those who worked with him say his greatest contribution was not measured in megawatts.

‘I don’t hold anything back’

Beyond the control rooms and turbine decks, Mr. Ayi built people.

Through Genser’s graduate training programme, an 18-month rotational scheme combining field and corporate roles, and the Industrial Training Programme, he personally mentored young engineers, guided university students, and hosted visiting groups from institutions like Georgetown University.

“Because of my experience, it has been a great help,” he said.

“We normally take in students from the universities, then put them through training, a one-year training, then rotate them through all the departments.

My managers and I prepare the training programme for them.

We drill them through, especially power generation.

Whoever passes through, we equip them with these skills.”

At the end of the one-and-a-half-year programme, Genser absorbs the best and places them in various plant positions.

Asked how confident he is in the next generation, Mr. Ayi did not hesitate:

“I strongly believe that if they absorb everything, they can also take it from there to impact those who come after them.

The reason I’m saying this, as I talk to you, those that I trained, all of them are well equipped and they are taking over.

They are now managers of their own plants.

They’ve kept everything together and they are handling it.”

He added, simply: “I don’t hide anything. I give everything to them.”

A legacy written in training manuals

Even in his final assignment, Mr Ayi is thinking ahead.

He has been leading the development of training and operational curriculum for Genser’s Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) programme, translating decades of hands-on experience into structured learning for the engineers who will run the next generation of more efficient power systems.

“Mr Ayi represents what it means to build capability locally,” said Baafour Asiamah-Adjei, CEO of Genser Energy.

 “He brought global experience, applied it in a Ghanaian context, and invested time in ensuring others could do the same,” he added.

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Chairman of Genser Energy, Nana Osae Nyampong, echoed that sentiment: “Even as he prepares to retire, Mr. Ayi is focused on what comes next.”

The measure of a career

For a man who held titles like VP of Operations, VP of Assurance, Plant Manager, and Facility Manager, Mr Ayi remains grounded.

His CV lists a BSc in Electrical/Electronic Engineering, City & Guilds diplomas, certifications in ISO 45001, finance for non-financial managers, and a long list of technical proficiencies.

But his true legacy walks the floors of Genser’s power plants today, young Ghanaian engineers, now managers themselves, running facilities with discipline and humility.

As one colleague put it: He didn’t just keep the lights on. He taught others how.

As Mr Ayi steps away, the machinery he helped build will keep turning.

The curriculum he drafted will train the next cohort. And the engineers he shaped will shape others.

Across Genser Energy, the sentiment is warm, respectful, and thoroughly Ghanaian.