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Investment in Egbin power plant now N50bn

By on January 27, 2015

A total of N50bn has been injected into Egbin Thermal Power Station since November 2013, when the company was privatised, the Chief Executive Officer, Egbin Power Plc, Mr. Mike Uzoigwe, has said.

He said this in Lagos on Saturday when the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, visited the company’s facilities.

Uzoigwe said part of the investment was the rehabilitation of the 220MW steam turbine generator, which had been abandoned for eight years after it went bad.

He said the company was committed to making the units at the plant more reliable, hence the total overhauling and retooling of some of them.

“Since we took over this company, a total investment of N50bn has been committed to our operations,” he said.

According to him, the target is to ensure that the operating units at the plant deliver maximum output so that more power will be made available to the Nigerian people.

“For instance, the control room has been totally overhauled, as well as the philosophy of our people. We have deployed new technologies that enable our engineers to solve problems in the plant by the mere click of a mouse,” Uzoigwe added.

According to him, more than 100 of the company’s employees have been sent to Korea for capacity building programmes since November last year.

Nebo, in his address, said Egbin Power had done well in trying to regain lost capacities.

He said the company was likely to double its current output in a few years given its level of seriousness.

The minister said the Federal Government would continue to boost the transmission capacity through significant investment.

In an interview with journalists, the Chairman, Board of Directors, Egbin Power Plant, Mr. Kola Adesina, said the company would continue to support the transmission and generation arm of the power sector to ensure the effectiveness of the entire system.

He said for distribution, it remained committed to driving the smart-metering initiative so that the locations and quantum of power distributed would be effectively tracked, especially at the group level.

A statement by Egbin Power Plc on Sunday said the rehabilitation had brought the plant back to its installed capacity of 1,320MW.

“The rehabilitated and restored Unit ST-06 brings an additional 220MW to the Nigerian national electricity grid and will also bolster power supply to the Lagos metropolis, thereby improving socio-economic activities in the region,” the company said.

It noted that the ST-06 unit, which was first inaugurated in November 1987, suffered a boiler explosion during operation in 2006 due to some water-tube phenomenon.

It stated, “With the unit now generating at full steam, Egbin is currently in the final stages of a bilateral agreement to supply the 220MW to the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Plc and Eko Distribution Company, a development that is set to yield about 16 per cent additional power supply to Lagos, the nation’s commercial nerve centre.

“The transformation at the nation’s largest generation plant commenced following its acquisition by Sahara Power, working through a number of Special Purpose Vehicles in collaboration with its technical partners, Korea Electric Corporation.”

Uzoigwe was quoted as saying that the rehabilitation of the ST-06 unit was a major breakthrough, noting that huge resources were deployed in achieving a complete overhaul of the unit.

“When we took over Egbin Power Plant in November 2013, there was a sworn declaration to deploy all of our available resources to transform the plant into a centre of excellence. We are happy that this is being achieved through the expertise of our staff members and KEPCO, and we are delighted to say we are on course towards achieving our objective of being a foremost power generation plant in Africa,” he said.

 

[Punch]