The Shiroro Hydroelectric Power Station has recently made plans to construct a 300 megawatts photovoltaic solar powerplant on its existing plant’s premises, in Nigeria.
Roland Lwiindi, the company’s Chief Technical Officer said the new facility is an initiative of the new concessionaire, North-South Power Company Limited, since taking over the plant on November 1, 2013.
Mr. Lwiindi told the Post Privatisation Monitoring Team of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) that once approval was obtained from the necessary authorities, work will commence at the power station in Niger State and its first phase would come on stream in 2017.
He also explained that when completed, the new facility, which would be the first of its kind in Africa, would raise the electricity generation capacity to the 900 MW as against the currently generated 50 percent of its installed 600 MW capacity.
As a hydro powered power plant, Lwiindi said the station’s generation capacity traditionally declines during dry seasons, pointing out that the proposed photovoltaic solar facility would shore up its power generation during the off peak seasons.
The Chief technical officer pointed that, the management of the power plant had the requisite expertise to realize the envisaged gains of privatization, adding that Siemens Nigeria and Tetratec America were the company’s key technical partners. He also assured that with the infrastructural upgrade and technical expertise at the disposal of the company, the country would continue to witness improved power supply.
Chief Operations Officer of the plant, Abdul-Aziz Daudu told the BPE monitors that since takeover by the new investors, the generators and three out of four turbines had been overhauled to boost power output from the power plant, with plans in place to overhaul the fourth turbine. He also said that work was in progress to upgrade the Excitation Systems from analogue to digital, while a new programmable logic controller has been installed for improved power generation in line with the concession agreement.
