Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta state has commissioned the Gas Turbine 15, generating 115 Megawatts of electricity into the national grid at the Transcorp Power Plant, Ughelli, with a call for collaborative efforts in the power sector to ensure that generated power translates into electricity in homes of Nigerians.
Okowa who assured that the existing peace in the state would be consolidated as a continuous boost to investors confidence, stated that “I believe that there is hope around the corner but, there should be more collaboration for the power generated to get to our homes. We need to look into that section where the power generated gets to the people, because, no matter the amount of power you generate and it does not get to the masses, there will be issues,”
The Governor congratulated the Chairman of Transcorp Power Limited, Mr. Tony Elumelu for the achievements recorded by the company.
Earlier, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola commended Governor Okowa for his commitment to peace in the Niger Delta, adding that it has paid off with the successful operation of Transcorp in the area without any issues, even as he observed that the increase in power generation was a clear sign that the privatization of the power sector had started yielding benefits for Nigerians.
On his part, the Chairman of Transcorp Power Limited, Mr. Tony Elumelu, thanked Governor Okowa for making the environment very peaceful and good for investment, saying that “Since we started our operations here, there has not been any security issue with the community. Upon the successful acquisition and takeover of Ughelli Power Plc and its power generating plant by Transcorp Power Limited, the new owners resolved to achieve optimal plant recovery as quickly as possible.
“This led to an assessment of the plant, the outcome of which resulted in the replacement of the plant; the then existing Gas Turbine 15, which had a capacity of 100 MW but, was not functional, was part of the assets identified for outright replacement by Transcorp Power.” Elumelu explained.
According to Elumelu, “The new Gas Turbine 15 (115 MW) also comes with 33 per cent simple cycle efficiency and with the successful commissioning and synchronizing of the turbine to the national grid, it has increased the available capacity of our plant from 160 MW (at the time of takeover on November 1, 2013) to 620MW and our corporate goal is to increase our available capacity to 850 MW before the end of the year.”
High points of the event was a guided tour of the facilities and cutting of tape to commission the project.
