BREAKING NEWS, Business
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The Shiroro Hydroelectric Power Station wants to construct a 300 megawatts photo voltaic solar power plant to increase power supply to the country
THE Shiroro Hydroelectric Power Station is planning to construct a 300 megawatts, Mw, photo voltaic solar power plant on the existing plant premises, which was concessioned to the North- South Power Company, NSP, Limited on November 1, 2013, to boost the power supply in the country.
Roland Lwiindi, chief technical officer of the firm, disclosed the plan to the Post Privatisation Monitoring Team of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, which visited the power station in Shiroro, Niger State recently. Lwiindi said once approval was obtained from the necessary authorities, the first phase would come on stream in 2017 and it would be the first of its kind in Africa.
According to him, when completed the plant would add 300megawatts of electricity to the existing 600mega watts. He said that the plant was currently generating power at 50 percent installed capacity.
Lwiindi noted that as a hydro powered plant, its generating capacity declines at dry seasons but that the proposed photo voltic solar facility would shore up its power generation during the off peak seasons. For the current dry season, he said the plant would rely on the sun to make up for the short fall in power generation.
While stating that the management of the power plant had the requisite expertise to realise the envisaged gains of privatisation, the official said Siemens Nigeria and Tetratec America were the company’s key technical partners.
He assured that with the infrastructural upgrade and technical expertise at the disposal of the company, the country would continue to witness improved power supply.
In his remarks, Abdul-Aziz Daudu, chief operations officer of the plant, informed the BPE monitors that since takeover by the new investors, the generators and three out of the four turbines had been overhauled to boost power output from the power plant. He said plans were on to overhaul the fourth turbine.
He also said that work was in progress to upgrade the Excitation Systems, ES, from analogue to digital and that a new Programmable Logic Controller, PLC, had been installed for improved power generation in line with the concession agreement.
Abdullahi Shuaibu, leader of the BPE monitoring team, commended the management for the strides achieved since the take over and noted that it was an attestation to the gains of privatising.
Shuaibu stated that the strategic position of the Shiroro power plant in the country’s power sector was the reason that the federal government decided to concession the plant instead of outright sale. “The concession approach is to prevent monopoly within the sector as this approach would leave the doors open for more players from the private sector,” he said.
— Dec 1, 2015 @ 18:40 GMT
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