Yemisi Izuora
Nigeria’s largest power generation company, Egbin Power Plc, is escalating both technical and engineering works to generate power at installed capacity before end of this month.
The company said it will ensure the power plant increases its electricity generation capacity by 100 per cent by the 2019, to actualise its vision of enhancing the country’s economic growth and development.
Speaking at the induction of thirty nine the Sahara Group Graduate Engineering Programme, GEP, at the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria, NAPTIN, in Lagos Monday Mr. Kola Adesina, chief executive officer, CEO, of Sahara Group, said Egbin will deliver 1,320 megawatts, MW, of electricity to the national grid before end of February.
He however expressed serious concerns about transmission evacuation limitation, which may result in difficulties pushing out the volume of power from the plant to the grid network.
Adesina, said the management has deployed all necessary tools to actualise this target,disclosing that at the moment the plant is generating over 800MW despite gas supply hiccups.
He said while the company is sustaining its operations, there is urgent need for government to offset debt owed generation companies as well as review electricity tariff to make the industry competitive.
According to him, government is still owing the industry about N100 billion, but he commended the present administration of being sensitive to the plight of operators by making committed efforts to offset the debt,through the payment assurance scheme.
He further reaffirmed plans by the management to double the plant’s capacity to about 3,000 MW from its current 1,320 MW. “We are planning to raise the plants’ capacity by additional 1,900 MW to the existing 1320MW to reach above 3,000 MW this year.
“We’ have started a plan now to double the capacity of the plant as well as implement a programme to make Egbin an industrial hub where companies can come in and set up their factories knowing that their businesses will be powered effectively and efficiently,” he stated.
Prior to its privatisation, Egbin Power plant was in a deplorable situation, generating about 500MW. The plant before then did not undergo any major overhaul as the six units were not functional and in particular the unit 6 which was not working for 10 years.
The company plans to invest $1.2 billion for the capacity upgrade which is expected to be completed between 2019- 2020.
1 Comment
in fact everyday we are told that power has improve but just in the media but we no get light in my town OKENE ,are we not in Nigeria? answer me honorable Fashola.