Transcorp Ughelli to boost power supply by 1,228MW

Transcorp Ughelli Power Limited, has revealed plan to increase the generating capacity of its power plant by an additional 1,228 megawatts (MW) to 2,200 (MW) within the next three years, from its current installed capacity of 972MW.

This was disclosed by Engineer Adeoye Fadeyibi, Chief Executive Officer, Transcorp Ughelli Power Limited during a visit to the company by the post privatisation monitoring team from the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE.

Fadeyibi, who was represented by the Chief Finance Officer of the company, Mr. Olukunle Fagbayi, disclosed that by December 2015, the generation capacity would be raised to about 850mw and in December 2017 to about 1,650mw and 2,200mw in 2018.

He also said that on takeover of the plant on November 1, 2013, the core investor inherited only four operational turbines generating only 160mw of power, which it later rehabilitated and made 13 out of the 18 units fully operational and generating about 635mw of available capacity.

However, Fadeyibi lamented that due to the quality and quantity of gas available to the plant, only about 350mw could be made available to the grid, adding that another major challenge facing the company was the wheeling capacity of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

To this end, he called on the Federal Government to increase its investment in the transmission segment of the value chain of the power infrastructure to strengthen the wheeling capacity of TCN.

He revealed that since takeover in November 2013, the company had engaged an additional 45 staff in its payroll, assuring that Transcorp was going to surpass all the key performance indicators (KPIs) covenanted in its Post Acquisition Plan (PAP).

Fadeyibi also revealed that as part of its corporate social responsibility, the company runs a model school with about 1,000 student enrollment as well as skills acquisition schemes for the host communities.

The BPE, in a statement in Abuja, noted that the Post Privatization Monitoring team to Ughelli Power Plc was led by the Director, Post Privatization Monitoring Department, Mr. Chigbo Anichebe.

The BPE stated that is saddled with the responsibility of monitoring the performances of privatized enterprises to ensure adherence to the tenets of the Share Purchase Agreements (SPAs), Performance Agreements (PAs) and full implementation of investors’ Post Acquisition Plans (PAP).

Ughelli Power was among the 18 electricity successor companies unbundled from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) in 2003. The station was built in 1964 with an installed capacity of 2X36MW or 72MW from two Stal-Laval gas turbines. Then the station was called Delta I under Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN).

In 1975 six units of  General Electric (GE) Frame 5 gas turbines (20MW each) were installed in the station known as Delta II, after the merger of Niger Dam Authority (NDA), Kainji and the ECN to form the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA).