14th November, 2016
The Senate Committee on Privatisation has commended the management of Egbin Power Station over the improvement recorded in power generation and the ongoing transformation of the plant.
This is contained in a statement issued by the company’s head of media communications, Mr Kingsley Okotie, and made available to newsmen in Lagos on Monday.
The statement said that the Senate Committee Chairman on Privatization, Sen. Murray-Bruce, gave the commendation during the committee’s oversight visit to the facility.
Murray-Bruce said the turnaround of the facility was indicative of the huge impact the private sector could bring to the quest of transforming businesses, it said.
It described Egbin Power Station as a well-run world class facility.
The statement quoted Murray-Bruce as saying, “We are pleasantly satisfied with the state of the facility which is a first class one and shows the difference the private sector can play in our quest for economic growth and development.
“The task before us now is to examine how the challenges of the sector can be solved with all stakeholders working together to ensure we achieve a stable and reliable power sector.”
Murray-Bruce said in the statement that the privatisation of the sector remained a move in the right direction
He said that the committee was committed to working with all stakeholders to ensure the optimisation and efficiency of all privatised assets in the nation, it said.
The statement also said that Mr Dallas Peavey, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the facility, listed its post-privatisation achievements.
Peavey said that prior to the privatisation of the plant in Nov. 2013, Egbin averaged generation of below 300 megawatts, it said.
Peavey said that the low generation capacity was due to the dismal operational state of its six units and at its lowest point, only two of the six units were partially operational, it said.
It said that the plant had recorded significant achievements in the last three years of privatisation following the successful operational restoration of Unit 6 which had been out of operations for 10 years.
It said that the company had also utilised modern technology in the total overhaul of other units and upgraded the Distributed Control System (DCS).
This had enabled the unit to attain its present peak of 220 megawatts, it said.
It said that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was ongoing for Egbin Phase II expansion project aimed at increasing generating capacity with an additional 1,800 megawatts to the grid.
It also quoted Peavey as saying that there had been a significant reduction in unscheduled shut-downs, unit forced outage occurrences, and improvement to unit efficiency making Egbin capable of generating an average of 1,100 megawatts.
“It said this would be achieved with gas availability and restoring the power plant to its installed capacity of 1,320 megawatts by the end of 2016.
Okotie said that the committee was accompanied by the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr Vincent Akpotaire, and other top BPE officials.