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Egbin Power plans 1350mw increase before 2019

By Sulaimon Salau
04 November 2015   |   12:47 am
The largest power plant in the country, Egbin Power Plc has unveiled its plans to ramp up its capacity (1320 megawatts) by an additional 1350 megawatts to arrive at a total of 2670 megawatts by 2019.
A power plant

A power plant

The largest power plant in the country, Egbin Power Plc has unveiled its plans to ramp up its capacity (1320 megawatts) by an additional 1350 megawatts to arrive at a total of 2670 megawatts by 2019.

It is also planning to establish an energy industrial city within its territory that would play host to interested industries who are bound to enjoy direct supply from the premier generating plant.

The Chairman of Egbin Electric Plc, Kola Adesina, who disclosed this during a media chart in Lagos yesterday said, “Our plan for Egbin is not just to maintain the 1320mw capacity, we are planning to double the capacity. We also have a broad programme to make Egbin an industrial hub, whereby companies with future global supportive export capacity can come in and set up their factories knowing fully well that their business will enjoy efficient power supply. The industrial hub will take the form of an export-processing zone. We want to encourage industrial activities taking place in Egbin,” he said.

Adesina however, lamented the increasing debt profile of the company, which he said currently stands at about N39 billion.
Noting that the debt has become a major stumbling block to the their projects, he urged electricity consumers and Discos to settle their bills promptly so as to aid the power value chain.
He said the new owners have invested massively in rehabilitating the near comatose plant since take over in November1 2013, adding that it has also improved on the staff quarters and security system to guarantee efficiency in the system.

“The spares and distribution control system are now in place, before it was not like that, but today we have a plant that is of global standard. We have also fixed the fire alarm detector system; install gas meters to capture the exact gas quantity that we are receiving; established simulator room to train staff and improve their performance, among others.”

According to Adesina, the company has not been making profit for two years of operations, but it believed that if the government that put the right tariff model in place and activate the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), a high level of growth would be recorded in the sector.

The Egbin boss lamented the effect of the huge forex differentials on its operations, as it based its business plan on about N158 per dollar as at take over period, but the rate has soar to about N195 per dollar now.
“For a company that depended on importation of equipment and spares, this is have a severe impact on our business plan,” he said.

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