By Adewole Kehinde
Egbin Power Plc is the largest power generating station in Nigeria with an installed capacity of 1,320 MW consisting of 6 Units of 220MW each. The station is located at Ijede/Egbin, in Ikorodu. It is about 40 km north east of the city of Lagos and is situated on low land in Ijede and bounded by the Lagoon to the south, Agura/Gberigbe to the north and situated in Ijede Local Council Development Area.
Construction work started in 1982 by Marubeni Consortium which used Hitachi Company of Japan for the Electric/Mechanical and Bouygues of France for civil works. The first unit (Unit 3) was completed and commissioned on the 13th May, 1985 and the other five units were commissioned at six-monthly intervals. Upon completion of the ramp-structured edifice, the commissioning was carried out under the auspice of the then Head of States and commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.
The Egbin Thermal Power Plant is a gas-fired plant with six 220MW independent boiler turbine units. It can also run on High Pour Fuel Oil, commonly called HPFO
The rehabilitation of Unit Six (ST-06) in Egbin, which suffered a boiler tube explosion in 2006, began in November, 2014 and was completed in January, 2015. This rehabilitation restored the plant back to its full capacity of 1320MW and was carried out by Hitachi.
Korea Electrical Power Nigeria Limited currently serves as a technical partner to Sahara Power Group with the goal of overhauling all the units in the plant, while achieving 85 percent power availability and 34 percent efficiency.
It will be recalled that on 30th May, 2017, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation gave out a tender to build 500million standard cubic feet of gas per day metering plant to serve the planned capacity expansion of Egbin Power Plant from its installed capacity of 1,320 Megawatts to 2670MW.
Managing Director of the Nigerian Gas Processing and Transmission Company (NGPTC), Mr. Babatunde Bakare, who spoke during the tender for the prequalification for the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC), of the project in Abuja said the bid exercise which witnessed bid submissions by 36 local and international companies, was a demonstration of NNPC’s commitment towards improving power supply in the country in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision for the power sector.
NNPC is the biggest gas supplier to Egbin power plant, which in turn, is equally the biggest power plant in Nigeria.
NNPC Chief Project Engineer for the project, Engr. Audu Ibrahim, who represented the NGPTC MD, said the expansion of the metering system to serve the Egbin Power Plant was imperative to coping with the heightened volumes of gas that might be needed as a result of its planned expansion.
The General Manager, Supply Chain Management, represented by the Manager, Mr. Rotimi Feyisitan, said due diligence in respect of technical and financial requirements would apply to all the 36 companies which submitted bids in line with the Corporation’s transparency policy.
Feyisitan assured that there would be no under-the-table dealing with any of the companies.
The exercise represents part of NNPC strategic moves to increase its footprint in the nation’s power supply mix, with a view to expanding the Corporation’s stakes in non-core hydrocarbon resources businesses.
It is in view of this; to increase its footprint in the nation’s power supply mix that the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari, has said that the Corporation has delivered sustained gas supply to the Egbin Power Plant.
Kyari, who paid a visit to the plant on Monday, said that it has delivered promise to be the biggest gas supplier to Egbin power plant.
It said this was necessary to enable the NNPC meet with increased volumes of gas that would be needed for the plant.
It will be recalled that Kyari via his twitter handle said, “Visited Egbin thermal power plant and NNPC-NGC gas metering station.
“Assurances of sustained and subsequent elevated gas supply delivered. Great, effective and passionate teams at Egbin power Ltd and NGC/NGMC West.”
The Nigerian Gas Processing and Transportation Company (NGPTC), which was incorporated in July 2016, as one of the Subsidiaries of NNPC is a successor company to the former Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) Limited. NGPTC has the mandate of gathering, processing and transporting gas to its customers.
Its achievements include: Executed Six (6) nos. Gas Transportation Agreements (GTA) with the major power customers namely: Egbin Power Plc, Ughelli Power Plc, Sapele Power Plc, Olorunsogo Power Plc, Omotosho Power Plc, Geregu Power.
The following are some of the completed major Gas Facility Projects; Abeokuta City Gate Station – 2015, Ogijo City Gate Station – 2015.
Freedom to Operate Projects currently being executed in our host Communities include; Pipeline Infrastructure for Gas Supply to Ugborodo for 500kva Gas Driven Generating Plant
Pipeline Infrastructure for Gas Supply to Azama and Tebijor in Gbaramatu Kingdom for 2 X 500kva Gas Driven Generating Plant
Adewole Kehinde is the Publisher of Swift Reporters and Energy Fellow of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry Policy Centre. He can be reached via 08166240846, 08123608662
