The dividends of the power sector privatization in Nigeria have started to manifest as the Egbin Power Plc, Nigeria’s largest generation plant now generates above 1000MW consistently into the national grid, Chairman of the Company, Mr. Kola Adesina has revealed.
Giving an update on the activities of the Company in Lagos recently, the Chairman noted that “this is the first time since inception of the power plant that it will achieve the feat because of the continuing investment and upgrade activities on the plant by the new investors- Sahara Power Group and Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO)”.
He recalled that eight years ago, the plant hit the 1000mw mark for barely two hours and never attained it again until now; and that prior to the privatization and handover of the plant in November 2013, Egbin averaged generation of below 500mw due to the dismal state of its six units which at its lowest point, only two of the six units were operational.
The Chairman said that prior to the privatization of the plant in November 2013; most of the auxiliaries like the demineralization plant were not functional, spare parts necessary for plant operation and preventive maintenance were unavailable and that most of the equipment were obsolete.
He said since takeover, the new owners have embarked on total overhaul of units 4, 5 and 1, allowing the units to peak at 220 MW each which is the installed capacity and that the plant “has never undergone any major overhaul in its 30 years of operation”.
Adesina said Unit 6 of the plant which has been un-operational for 10 years has been successfully restored while Turbine Vibration Monitoring Systems which assist in regulating the speed of the turbine in the event of vibration to avoid a catastrophic failure have been replaced.
According to him, with the successful restoration of unit 6 and the overhauling of the units halfway complete, there was an increase of 50 percent in generation and a drastic decrease in unscheduled shut-downs.
On the medium term investment plans, the Chairman said the major overhaul of Units 2, 3 & 6 in 2016 will complete the overhaul plan scheduled until the next scheduled overhaul in 2019.
While noting that the feat signposts the unfolding success of the privatization process and power sector reform in Nigeria, Adesina attributed the achievement partly to the direct intervention of the federal governments in its determination to resolve the power crisis which has resulted in recent improvement in gas supply.
“This is driving the increase in power supply in the nation, boosting socio-economic development. Prior to this, we had invested heavily and had the plant ready to generate power at full capacity but there was no gas to do so. This is indeed a good development for the power sector in Nigeria,” he said.
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