Michael James
27 December 2017, Sweetcrude, Lagos – The 459-megawatts, MW, Azura-Edo power plant, which connected to the national grid last week, achieved more than 4 million man-hours of work without a single lost-time injury, Deputy Managing Director of the Azura Power Company, Mr. Edu Okeke, has said.
The project construction began in January 2016 and was anticipated to reach completion in December 2018, but with the bulk of the work already completed and the first turbine hooked to the national grid, Okeke said the project is currently more than 7 months ahead of schedule.
He noted that having clocked up more than 4 million man-hours of work without a single lost-time injury, the project has become a standard-bearer for good health and safety practices.
Okeke said the first turbine of the 459MW plant, which was synchronised and connected to Nigeria’s national grid last week, marked the start of a four-month period of intensive commissioning of the plant located in Benin City, Edo State.
The plant is comprised of three Siemens turbines, each of which is capable of producing 153MW. The first turbine synchronised last week is expected to undergo a battery of tests over the next five weeks.
Tests on the second turbine will begin at the end of January, 2018, with the tests on the third turbine commencing at the beginning of March, 2018. The commissioning process will then conclude at the end of April, 2018 when the plant is scheduled to reach full commercial operations, SweetcrudeReports can report.
During this four-month commissioning period, the plant will produce over 100,000-megawatt hours of electricity which will be sold by the National Bulk Electricity Trading Plc, NBET, to the country’s distribution companies.
