Power Supply: Egbin Station Hits Over 1,000mw

With the recent inauguration of a newly installed Hydrogen Plant and the repair of the Station Turbine 1 (St -01), the power generation of Egbin Electric Power Plc, the highest gas-fired power station in Nigeria, has hit 1,080megawatts.

Speaking during the  ceremony, which was performed by the Minister of State for Power, Mr. Nuhu Somo Wya, the acting Chief Executive Officer of the Station, Mr. Mike Uzoigwe informed that for more than two years, they had journeyed every week to Delta Power Station to fill bottles of hydrogen to run the plant.

He stated that given the explosive nature of Hydrogen, those journeys were very risky, adding that the installation of a new Hydrogen Plant marked a turning point in the history of Egbin Power Station.

According to him, the old Hydrogen Plant started showing signs of failure in 2003.

“After lots of repair and patch-up work, it became impossible to continue repairing the plant, since its spare parts could no longer be sourced because of obsolescence. In 2004, therefore, we started placing advertisement for the construction of a new plant. After three years of following contract award due process, the contract to build a new plant was awarded on July 18, 2007,” he said.

Uzoigwe, however, noted that it took another two years to regularise all issues about price escalation and the raising of Letter of Credit (LC).

He stated that with the complete failure of the old Hydrogen Plant in 2008, the 1,320megawatts capacity Egbin Power Station had to depend on Delta Power Station for Hydrogen supply.

He said though five of the station’s six units were running throughout that period, the absence of functional hydrogen plant limited its generating capacity to only 30 per cent of the available capacity.

“The contract was originally awarded for N778million to Messrs Valenz Holding Nigeria Limited. A variation of 21 per cent of the foreign component of the contract was later granted in favour of Messrs Valenz Holdings Nigeria Limited, bringing the new price to N922million in 2009,” he said.

On the repaired Station Turbine 1, which gulped N1billion, Uzoigwe stated that the turbine crashed in December 2009 and commended the Federal Government for ensuring the swift execution of the repair work.

“In the past, this type of swift project execution was unheard of, but with the zeal of the present Federal Government to provide steady power supply to the citizenry and with the free hand to negotiate the repairs, it was possible to put the unit back into production under one year,” he added.

Performing the inauguration, Wya expressed the commitment of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to re-position the country’s power sector by implementing the Electric Power Sector Reform Act of 2005.

He said the government embarked on the implementation of the reform after it found out that differing the reform agenda was impacting negatively on power supply and the country’s economy.

Wya urged all the stakeholders, particularly the electricity workers, to support the reform as it was meant to address the power need of all Nigerians.

He reminded the workers that they would be the greatest beneficiaries of a reformed power sector.

Source : Thisday