Ejiofor Alike
4 January 2009
Lagos — As part of the efforts to boost the generation capacity of the Sapele Power Station, the management of the 1,020 megawatts capacity plant has embarked on the resuscitation of the long abandoned six units of the steam turbines.
THISDAY gathered that the plan to rehabilitate the steam-fired turbines was aimed at reducing the plant's dependence on gas for power generation.
Recently, gas supplies to both the station and the 1,320 megawatts capacity Egbin Power Station in Lagos were disrupted by the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), leading to a loss of 800 megawatts of electricity from the national grid.
Since this disruption of gas supplies, which was as a result of damaged pipelines, power supply in the country had been epileptic as Egbin was operating far below capacity, while the Sapele Station is completely shut down.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Sapele Power Station, Ifionu Chidi, told THISDAY in an exclusive interview at the weekend that rehabilitation works had already been completed in two units of the six units of the steam-fired turbines.
Ifionu, who assumed duties as the new boss at the station with the recent personnel restructuring in the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), disclosed that as soon as rehabilitation works are completed on the steam turbines, the management would also look at the possibility of carrying out similar operation on the four gas turbines in the plant.
He noted that through the combined efforts of the management and dedicated staff of the company, the station would soon bounce back to life.
"The plant is originally designed to operate on both steam and gas turbines. There are four units of gas turbines with a capacity of 75 megawatts each and six steam turbines with a capacity of 120 megawatts each. We are working on the steam turbines, which were abandoned for a very long time.
"Already, we have completed work on two units and we are on the third unit. In the next few months, we will rehabilitate four out of the six units," he said."When we finish with the steam turbines, we will also look at the possibility of work on the gas turbines. We will start work on them if we find out that they are worth spending money on," he added.
THISDAY also gathered that if at least four out of the six units of the steam-fired turbines were rehabilitated, they will add 480 megawatts of electricity to the national grid without relying on gas.
It was gathered that two out of the six units of turbines at Egbin with a capacity of 220 megawats each were also originally designed to use steam.
The CEO lamented that the Sapele power station is not generating electricity at the moment due to lack of gas supply from the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC).
He was however very optimistic that normal gas supply would be restored to the plant in the next few weeks.Before the drop in electricity generation from Sapele and Egbin, the country's power output level was being expected to hit 4,000 megawatts by the end of 2008, from a generating capacity, which hovered between 3,000mw and 3,200mw.
This projection came as the $1.3 billion Afam VI power plant being constructed by Shell Petroleum Develop-ment Company (SPDC) and its joint venture partners in Okoloma community in Oyigbo local government area of Rivers State, was set to hit a capacity of 450 megawatts (MW) by the end of December 2008.However, with the current drop in generation, the country is barely generating about 2400mw.
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