Calabar NIPP plant set to supply 70mw of electricity to Togo

The Calabar Power Plant, built under National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), the implementor of the project, is to supply its West African neighbour-Togo 70 mega watts (MW) of electricity through a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) under the eligible customer policy of the federal government has five units (Gas Turbines) with a total designed capacity of about 600 Mega Watts.

Executive Director Generation, NDPHC, Engr Kassim Abdullahi disclosed this at the weekend while on inspection tour of the power plant said the management of the plant were also in discussion to supply another 100MW to Paradise City in Calabar under the same ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ (eligible customer) agreement.

He explained that the Eligible Customer framework “is one of the key relieves for the power sector in Nigeria, especially at NDPHC where most of the power stations we have today are limited in their operations because of the dispatch challenges.

“We hardly do the full capacity because of grid constraints but with the eligible customers framework we shall be able to commence some serious drive and engagements with willing buyers of our power.

“Calabar is one of the Plants where we have bilateral agreement with Togo, with a PPA to supply about 70MW and also there are 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 in getting more eligible customers to ensure that these available stranded power that we have in most of the power stations are dispatched”.

Engr. Abdullahi described the plant as one of the best amongst NDPHC plants with uninterruptible gas availability and a good dispatch network.

“Calabar is one of our best power stations under NDPHC and is one of the power stations with good gas supply, where we have a GSA with ACCU Gas. The Power Station also has a good dispatch 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 and 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 dispatch. It is one of the best,” he said.

Also speaking, the Chief Operating Officer of Calabar Power Plant- Engr. 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.

“Even though, there are lots of challenges, we are able to surmount them because of the cooperation between NDPHC and us and with the experience we have gained over time from other power projects,” John added.