Daily Trust (Abuja)
Hamisu Muhammad
19 June 2009
Afam Power Company - a subsidiary of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) yesterday signed a rehabilitation contract of its GT18 unit at the rate of 10.4 million euro (About N2.1 Billion) with Alstom Nigeria Limited.
At the end of the rehabilitation work, the Afam Power Company located in Rivers State is expected to add 75 megawatts of electricity to the national grid by November this year.
Part of the contract also is for Alstom to carry out diagnostic inspection of unit GT13 of the Afam Power Company to ascertain all the defective components that will be repaired or replaced said Group Executive Director, Operation, PHCN, Engr. John Ayodele.
Ayodele said as soon as all the rehabilitation works at the plant is completed, Afam would achieve the 200MW target that was allocated to it towards the attainment of 6000MW by December this year.
He regretted that similar overhaul had not been carried out on PHCN plants for a long time and commended the Federal Government for the initiative which he said would save the power sector.
Ayodele gave the breakdown of the contract as 8.904 million euro for the purchase of materials and 1.143m euro for the manpower.
In his speech, the Chief Executive Officer of Afam Power Company, Mr. Mike Nwogu noted that GT18 was built and inaugurated by Alstom under the name of ABB in 1982.
He added, "The unit ha snot been overhauled ever since it was commissioned in 1982. The unit has done 119,818 evaluated operating hours ever since commissioned in 1982 while 16,000 evaluated operating hours is recommended by the manufacturers for overhaul to be carried out on the unit.
"In other words, this unit is overdue for major overhaul but the components will be repaired or replaced with modification done on certain areas like air-intake, compressor, exhaust etc."
The Managing Director of the Alstom Nigeria limited Mrs Victoria Adefara said her company will ensure the completion of the project on time.
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