BREAKING NEWS, Power
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The National Integrated Power Project with adequate supply of gas will generate 2,910.1 megawatts of electricity to be added to the national grid
| By Anayo Ezugwu | May 11, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT |
POWER plants built under the National Integrated Power Project, NIPP, are ready to generate 2,910.1 megawatts of electricity. This was made known during the presentation of the status report to the 31st meeting of the board of directors of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company, NDPHC, held on April 17, 2015. Namadi Sambo, vice president, is the chairman of the Board of directors of NDPHC, owners of the NIPP.
According to the executive summary of the report, published by THISDAY, on April 28, a total of 265 out of 296 injection substations have also been completed under the NIPP, with 13, 367 completely self-protected, CSP, transformers installed nationwide. The report listed other most recent key achievements of NIPP to include the completion of 2.1 kilometres gas pipeline from Creek Town to Ikot Nyong; inauguration of the 561 megawatt-capacity Calabar Power Station Lot 1 built by Marubeni West Africa; inauguration of 330KV DC Jos-Makurdi Lot 1A, which is over 250 kilometres and the inauguration of Makurdi 330/132/33KV Substation Lot 1B.
Others include the inauguration of 132KV DC Adiabo-Calabar transmission substation, among others. In the area of power generation, the report listed six out of the 10 NIPP power plants, which are already adding power to the national grid. These six power stations are now ready to generate 2,910 megawatts of electricity into the grid, subject to the availability of gas supply.
A breakdown of the generating capacities of these plants showed that the 562.5 megawatt-capacity Calabar Power Station built by Marubeni is now generating 112.5 megawatts; 451mw-capacity Ihovbor Power Plant in Edo State is now producing 225 megawatts; while the 451mw-capacity Sapele Power Station, also built by Marubeni currently generates 112.5mw.
Others are 450 mw-capacity Olorunsogo Power Station in Ogun State, which generates 225 megawatts; 450 megawatt-capacity Omotosho Power Station in Okitipupa local government area of Ondo State, which generates 225 megawatts and 434.1mw-capacity Geregu Power Station in Kogi State, which generates 289.4 megawatts.
The report identified vandalism of gas pipeline as a major risk facing the NIPP plants, noting that the vandalism of the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline “has resulted in major curtailment of generation at Ihovbor, Sapele, Omotosho, Olorunsogo and Geregu.” The report also disclosed that there are no committed gas supplies for Geregu and Ihovbor.
NIPP was conceived in 2004 as a major fast-track initiative to add significant new generation capacity to Nigeria’s electricity supply industry. The generation projects are accompanied by supporting transmission, distribution and gas transport infrastructure projects. NIPP includes 10 medium-sized gas fired power plants. Eight of these power plants were initially designed as open-cycle gas turbine, OCGT, power plants while the remaining two were designed as combined-cycle gas turbine, CCGT, power plants. Seven of the OCGT plants have the capacity to be expanded to combined cycle gas turbine, CCGT configuration.
Chinedu Nebo, minister of power, had during the commissioning of the Olorunsogo Phase II Power Station in Ogun State on Friday, February 20, said the commissioning of this power station today, the third in the series of the 10 power stations constructed by NDPHC under the NIPP scheme, is no doubt a testament of President Goodluck Jonathan administration’s commitment to the reform and development of the power sector.
“Under your bold and purposeful leadership, the Power Sector has recorded major world-acclaimed landmarks in policy direction with the successful privatization of the generation and distribution sub-sectors and significant addition to power generation capacity with the completion of the NIPP projects, the commissioning of one of which is taking place today. Today’s ceremony is therefore a clear demonstration of your administration’s steadfast follow-through on the projects necessary to realise your vision of bringing power to every Nigerian household.
“It demonstrates the commitment and visible support of your administration to the completion of all on-going projects under various agencies in the power sector which will contribute in no small measure to the socio-economic development for the vast majority of Nigerians and the participation of the private sector players in the reform process. All these are in line with the Transformation Agenda of this administration on which the road map for the reform of the power sector which was launched by you in October 2010 is anchored, and on the Electricity Power Sector Reform Act of 2005,″ he said.
Nebo affirmed that privatisation of the power sector is working contrary to insinuations in some quarters, explaining that the dogged determination of President Jonathan to go through with the privatisation of the generation and distribution assets is now beginning to be borne out to the benefit of the Nigerian electricity consumer. “Permit me to share a couple of examples. Ughelli Power Plant, which at the time it was privatised in 2013 was barely able to generate 160MW is today capable of generating 610 MW, with a target of 850MW by end-2015. Egbin Power Plant has succeeded in recovering all its installed capacity of 1320MW with the installation a new 220MW turbine,” he said.
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Tags: CCGT Chinedu Nebo combined-cycle gas turbine Egbin power plant electricity Electricity Power Sector Reform Act Escravos-Lagos Pipeline gas pipeline Geregu Power Station Goodluck Jonathan Ihovbor Power Plant Namadi Sambo national grid National Integrated Power Project NDPHC Niger Delta Power Holding Company NIPP Olorunsogo Phase II Power Station Olorunsogo Power Station Omotosho Power Station power sector Transformation Agenda Sapele Power Station transformers transmission Ughelli power plant Vandalism
