From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
As part of measures to despatch available stranded power to neighbouring West African countries, the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) has entered into an agreement with the Republic of Togo to supply about 70 megawatts of electricity.
It is equally discussing with Paradise City, where the company has expressed its willingness to off-take about 100MW.
Speaking during the inspection of Calabar Power Plant in Odukpani, Cross River State, the Executive Director, Generation, Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), Mr Kassim Abdullahi, said the plant, which is wholly owned by NDPHC under the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP) programme, has five units (gas turbines) with a total designed capacity of about 600 megawatts.
“Calabar is one of the plants where we have bilateral agreement with Togo, with a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to supply about 70MW and also with on-going discussions with other potential customers in Calabar like the Paradise City, where they are willing to off-take 100MW.
“This is the way to go. We are working tirelessly to get more eligible customers to ensure that these available stranded power that we have in most of the power stations are despatched.
“Calabar is one of our best power stations under NDPHC with good gas supply, where we have a Gas Supply Agreement (GSA) with ACCU Gas.
The power station also has a good despatch network and some eligible customers as well. “We are here on our on-going inspection as part of the routine maintenance we do on all our power stations. Calabar is currently running two units. In the morning it was three units that were available on the grid but because of the instability and some frequency controls we had to go down with one unit.
“The other two units are undergoing routine maintenance on the transformer lube oil system and also a boroscope inspection on the engines.
“Calabar is doing very well. We have gas. We have good network for despatch. It is one of the best” he said.
According to him, when all the units are firing, Calabar power plant has a total capacity of 560MW available power for despatch.
He disclosed that the Eligible Customer framework “is one of the key relieves for the power sector that we have here in Nigeria. More importantly, most of the power stations that we have in NDPHC today are limited in their operations because of the despatch challenges. We are hardly doing the full capacity because of grid constraints but with the eligible customer framework we are able to commence some serious drive and engagements with willing buyers of our power.
Earlier, the Chief Operating Officer of Calabar Power Plant, Mr Oyewale Olugbenga John, noted that the plant has remained the best through the support of NDPHC management and the good operation and maintenance team at the plant.
“Eventhough, there are lots of challenges, we are able to surmount them because of the co-oporation between them and us. With the experience we have gained over time from other power plants, we are able to keep the plant going,” he added.
John thanked the company’s management for supporting the team, saying, “each time we want something from them they quickly get it to us and allow us to progress”
He disclosed that at the time of the inspection when two units were working, the plant was sending 225MW to the national grid due to frequency control.
In a statement, Head, Communication & Public Relations of NDPHC, Mrs. Olufunke Nwankwo, said that the Executive Director was accompanied on the visit by Engineer M.D Dauda, Head, O&M and Engineer Yusuf Labaran Deputy General Manager (DGM) Gas, among others, who form the technical team as well as the Communication & PR team.
ENDS