Parliament has approved a 34.1 million euros loan agreement between Ghana Grid Company Limited (GRIDco ) and the Societe Generale to finance the Substations Reliability Enhancement Project (SHREP). The GRIDco intends to upgrade and enhance the operational reliability of its equipment at the Bulk Supply Points (BSPs). In line with that objective, the company is to replace the identified obsolete and faulty components of the transmission network at various substations that are contributing to unreliable and low power quality in the power network.The project, therefore, seeks to improve upon the flexibility in the operation of the power system and maintenance of power equipment.According to a report of the Finance Committee of Parliament on the loan, a major policy objective of the government was to increase the installed capacity of Ghana’s electricity from the current level of about 2,000 MW to about 5,000 MW by 2015.That required an accelerated effort of enforcement and expansion of the electric transmission grid to ensure reliable and secure evacuation of all the power that would be generated to meet the ever-increasing customer demand.According to the report, the government had also planned to make Ghana a net exporter of electric power to its neighbouring countries, including Togo, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mali and Nigeria.That export driven policy also required the strengthening of the existing institutional capacity in electric power dispatch and control, market operations, engineering and power management functions of the GRIDco.“Considering the current state of the National Interconnected Transmission System (NITS) for Ghana which is saddled with over-aged and obsolete equipment, overloads, high losses, low voltages and evacuation constraints, among others, achieving this objective would require systematic and orderly development and expansion of the transmission infrastructure including transmission lines and substations.The scope of work would include the replacement of obsolete protection, control and metering systems and the provision of modern test equipment.In addition, there would also be the reconfiguration of substations and provision of dedicated circuit breakers on each transformer at Cape Coast, Winneba and Akwatia, among other works.The repayment period of the loan is 10 years with a grace period of two years.The House also approved a 48,148,370.02 euros from the Societe Generale for the financing of the Tumu-Han-Wa electricity project.The project, which would last for 18 months, would include the provision of 130km of 16kV transmission line between Wa and Tumu, 29km of 161kV transmission between Bolgatanga and Navrongo; extension of works at Bolgatanga and Sawla substations and 161/34.5kV substations at Wa and Tumu.In another development, the House also approved an 8,870,000.00 loan from the Raiffeisen Bank International AG, Vienna, Austria, to finance the Phase One Water Supply Scheme for the Adaklu Anyigbe and North Tongu districts and the Ho Municipality.The Chairman of the Finance Committee of the House moved the motion on all the three occasions for the adoption of the committee’s report and subsequent approval of the loans.MPs who commented on the loans expressed the hope that the completion of the projects would curb the current power outages in the country.