KAINJI HYDRO STATION BACK ON NATIONAL GRID

The plant was shut down on Thursday 15 March 2012, following excessive leakage from its dam which threatened to flood the station. Consequently, power from the four units (a combined 233MW of electricity), were cut off from the national grid, following the permission granted by the Minister to shut down the station in order to investigate the source of leakage.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Kainji Power Plant, Engineer Yinka Akinwumi, informed the minister last night that inspection on the four units has been completed and that the plant has been tied to the national grid once more, delivering 233MW of electricity.

Engr. Akinwumi has explained that this problem is “normal” because the plant is old (constructed in 1968) and has suffered maintenance and overhaul neglect since it was commissioned 44 years ago.

He, however, said that there is hope for improvement following an ongoing World Bank programme to rehabilitate four of the turbines in Phase 1 of a two-phased project to rehabilate the station in order to reach its installed capacity of 760MW.

“The (World Bank) maintenance involves an ongoing retrofit of three units and overhaul of the remainder,” he said.

Prof. Nnaji has congratulated Engr. Akinwunmi and his Kainji team for rectifying the problem in a record three days and restoring critical power to the nation.