Sapele Power’s planned plant expansion targets 1,000MW electricity generation

Sapele Power Plc, managers of one of Nigeria’s gas-fired power plants, is planning an expansion of its plant to boost recovery of installed capacity and introduce new generation capacity.

Onoriode Odjeba, the company’s managing director disclosed this at a stakeholder’s workshop with host communities in Sapele recently, stating that this plan would add 1000MW of electricity in the next five years and refurbish its gas turbines.

Odjeba further stated that one of the means through which they intended to achieve this capacity expansion would be the installation of gas turbine on badges.

In February, the company signed a 300MW Power Purchase Agreement with Cummins Cogeneration Ltd just three weeks after it signed another 300MW investment in Ghana.

Upon completion, the company said the project would supply approximately three billion kilo-watt-hours of electricity to the Nigerian grid per annum, which is approximately 10 percent of total production today.

 “We know that Nigerians have high expectations from the privatized power sector and that is why the company has a strong focus on sustainable power generation focused on capacity recovery from its existing asset, as well as expansion from a mix of projects which would double the plant’s installed capacity within the next three years,” said Anthony Onoh, chairman of the company.

Currently, Sapele Power  operates Nigeria’s second largest power plant by an installed capacity of about 1020MW, capable of meeting the energy needs of around 750,000 homes at full capacity.

The Sapele power plant which was built from 1978 – 1982 has an installed capacity of 1,020MW but presently generates 150MW before it was privatised in February 2014 and sold to a private initiative, Eurafric Group.

This expansion programme is part of the company’s phased plant operations improvement set for July 2016 and final commissioning in December 2017.