Yemisi Izuora
The ongoing transformation at Egbin Power Plc, Nigeria’s foremost power generation capacity has received the endorsement and commendation of the 8th Senate Committee on Privatisation during a recent oversight visit to the facility.
Describing Egbin Power as a “well-run world class facility”, the Committee’s Chairman, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce said the turnaround of the facility was indicative of the huge impact the private sector brings to the quest of transforming businesses.
“We are pleasantly satisfied with the state of the facility which is first class and shows the difference the private sector can play in our quest for economic growth and development. The task before us now is to examine how the challenges of the sector can be solved with all stakeholders working together to ensure we achieve a stable and reliable power sector,” he said.
Speaking on Egbin’s post privatization achievements, Dallas Peavey, Chief Executive Officer said, prior to the privatization of the plant in November 2013, Egbin averaged generation of below 300-MW due to the dismal operational state of its six units and at its lowest point, only two of the six units were partially operational.
He further highlighted major investments made since take-over 3years ago such as the successful operational restoration of Unit 6 which had been out of operations for 10 years, utilizing state of the art technology in total overhaul of other Units and upgrades of the Distributed Control System (DCS) which enables the Units peak at its 220-MW of originally installed capacity while Environmental Impact Assessment is on-going for Egbin Phase II expansion project aimed at increasing generating capacity with an additional 1800MW to the grid.
According to Peavey, there has been a significant reduction in unscheduled shut-downs, unit forced outage occurrences, and improvement to Unit efficiency making Egbin capable of generating an average of 1,100-MW with gas availability and restoring the power plant to its installed capacity of 1320MW by the end of year 2016.
He further stated that in addition to inadequate gas supply and high cost of alternative fuel (HPFO), the ineffectiveness of Power Purchase Agreements, grid instability, non-cost reflective tariff are some of the operational challenges facing the company.
Accompanied by the Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mr Vincent Akpotaire and other top BPE officials, Murray-Bruce noted that the privatization of the sector remained a move in the right direction adding that the Committee is committed to working with all stakeholders to ensuring the optimization and efficiency of a
