Kainji Power Plant Back on Stream
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- Category: Business and Economy
- Published on Tuesday, 20 March 2012 10:27
- Written by Admin
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Three days after it was shut down following water leakage, the Kainji Hydro Power Station is back on stream, Minister of Power, Prof. Bart Nnaji, has said.
He also said the facility was now delivering power to the national grid from its four available units that were shut down.
Media Assistant to the minister, Mr. Ogbuagu Anikwe, quoting Nnaji in a statement yesterday, said a combined 233 megawatts of electricity from the four units of the plant which was shut down last Thursday had now been restored to the national grid.
Anikwe also said in the statement that the minister was last night informed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Kainji Power Plant, Mr. Yinka Akinwumi, that inspection on the four units had been completed and that the plant was now tied to the national grid once more, delivering 233mw of electricity.
Following excessive leakage from its dam which threatened to flood the station, the power lost from the four units of the station was actually 233mw and not 330mw that was initially reported, Akinwunmi confirmed in the statement.
The shutdown had resulted in power from the four units to be cut off from the national grid, but with the permission of the minister, divers at the station were asked to move in and investigate the source of the leakage.
Akinwumi in the statement explained that the recent setback was normal, considering the age of the plant and its recurrent maintenance and overhaul neglect which it had experienced since its inauguration 44 years ago. The plant was constructed in 1968.
He however said that there was room for improvement in the generation capacity of the plant following an ongoing World Bank programme to rehabilitate four of the turbines in Phase 1 of a two-phased project to rehabilitate the station to its installed capacity of 760mw.
“The World Bank maintenance involves an ongoing retrofit of three units and overhaul of the remainder,” he said in the statement.
