Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, on Monday commissioned a 115 megawatt gas turbine which raises Transcorp Power Limited’s total generating capacity to 620mw of power.
The new turbine with 33% average efficiency unlike the previous 29-30% efficient 100mw, the company said, would further raise capacity to 850mw by end of this year.
The previous turbine had lasted for 18 years and developed a gas turbine failure in 2008 due to lack of adequate funding.
Transcorp Power, in a series of tweets on the commissioning, praised the Federal Government’s total commitment to overhauling the nation’s power sector which has seen power generation capacity improving, just like “transmission wheeling capacity has expanded.”
These, the company added, has encouraged Transcorp Group through its power subsidiary to engage in capacity and infrastructure upgrade, at a time when vandalisation is being tackled gradually through renewed and intensive collaboration with host communities.
While the project was financed by the African Finance Corporation (AFC), equipment was supplied by General Electric.
Commenting on the commissioning, Tony Elumelu, chairman of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc, parent company of Transcorp Power said the project “is highly significant for us as Transcorp Power, having pledged to contribute 25% of Nigeria’s power output.
“With the GT15’s additional 115mw capacity, we are one step closer to this goal. It’s also notable for Nigeria as we push to truly unleash the power sector with the recently announced N701bn power insurance guarantee for NBET (Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trader),” he added, expressing appreciation to the Muhammadu Buhari administrion for tackling the challenges of Nigeria’s electricity tariffs.
Elumelu also acknowledged the support of Governor Okowa who ensured a safe environment to operate in the state with zero disruptions to work on the project, adding that with the new 850mw capacity, there will be need for more gas.
The commission was also attended by Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola and Andrew Alli, CEO of AFC and officials of GE Africa.
Commenting on the group’s 2016 audited financials, Emmanuel Nnorom, chief executive of Transcorp Plc noted that while the bulk of revenue came from Transcorp Power’s N44.067bn, it accounted for N24.885bn of the N27.007bn total finance cost, and suffered N8.083bn loss.
The loss, he continued, followed a US$ facility for Transcorp Power, with exchange rate falling to N304.5/$ from the N196/$ at the beginning of the 2016 financial year, besides the problem of sourcing foreign currency that affected plan to convert the USD facility to local currency.
He lamented the N50bn debt owed the company by way of invoices generated for power production at an average of 55% of available capacity during the period, down from 65%, blaming the drop in capacity on “the deteriorating gas supply situation from gas pipeline disruptions.
“Despite this, Transcorp Power remains a top three player in terms of power contributed to the national grid,” he stressed, adding that the group would recover significantly from the exchange loss in the year by maintaining cost levels.
“We are confident of improved fundamentals going forward as we are increasing our available generation capacity to 850mw by year-end taking advantage of recently improving gas situation,” the company assured.