Egbin Power Plant Adds 1,000MW To National Grid

The Egbin Power Plc, Nigeria’s largest generation plant, is now generating above 1,000mw 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, Adesina 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 1,000mw mark for barely two hours and never attained it again until now; and that prior to the privatisation 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, had only two of the six units operational.
The chairman said that prior to the privatisation of the plant in November 2013, most of the auxiliaries, like the demineralization plant, were not functional, and spare parts necessary for plant operation and preventive maintenance were unavailable, while most of the equipment was obsolete.
According to him, since takeover, the new owners have embarked on total overhaul of units 4, 5 and 1, allowing the units to peak at 220mw each – which is the installed capacity, adding that the plant “had 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, had 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, had 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 per cent 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 would complete the scheduled overhaul plan until the next one in 2019.
While noting that the feat signposts the unfolding success of the privatisation process and power sector reform in Nigeria, Adesina attributed the achievement partly to the direct intervention of the federal government in its determination to resolve the power crisis which has resulted in recent improvements 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.
Commending the federal government for recent interventions in the gas situation that had impacted power generation positively, the company’s chairman called for more dynamic policies and incentives for sustainable gas supply across the nation.
He pledged that the company would sustain its continuing capital investments and robust human capital development initiatives which include exchange programmes and training courses for all cadres of staff.
Also speaking on the achievement, the company’s chief executive officer, Dallas Peavey, said the transformation in Egbin commenced following its acquisition by Kepco Energy Resource Ltd (KERL) in collaboration with its technical partners, Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO).
“Through the injection of close to N50 billion in new capital into Egbin post privatisation, the Sahara Power/KEPCO partnership has brought to the power plant an unprecedented level of innovativeness, professionalism, human capital development and continuing investment in new technology. The control room panels, installed at the plant’s inception, have been removed and upgraded to state of the art digital panels. The highlight of the main plant rehabilitation occurred in the first quarter of 2015 when the company successfully rehabilitated ST Unit 6, bringing an additional 220mw to the national grid and restoring the power plant to its installed capacity of 1,320mw,” he said.
Peavey noted that upon taking over the plant, the new management brought in a new lease of life to all the stakeholders in Egbin with a clear roadmap for consistent retooling and repositioning of the company to conform to the latest technology and ensure optimal performance.
He said, “In 2014, 107 young Nigerian graduate engineers were recruited into our Graduate Engineering Programme (GEP), a fast-track manpower and developmental programme for high potential individuals. In the true spirit of national development, the engineers were sent to the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN) for a year’s training under the Graduate Skills Development Programme.
“With these developments, Egbin is now equipped to generate power at its installed 1,320mw capacity and we remain committed to sustaining the performance of the plant as we prepare to explore the prospects of expansion for enhanced power generation. We are already envisioning a future of 2,670mw in a few years’ time and even go beyond to 10,000mw in the next decade, if gas supply, transmission expansion and demand permit.”