The management of Egbin Power Plc has said it will invest $2 billion in the expansion of its plants in addition to the $1bn it had already invested after the privatisation of the plant in 2013.
The Managing Director, Mr Kola Adesina, disclosed this when the Senate Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation paid a visit to the plant in Egbin, Lagos.
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He also said the debt which the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading PLC (NBET) owes the plant has reached N388bn.
Adesina said Egbin, which “has invested $1bn in its value chain, is perfecting an investment plan of $2bn for expansion.”
He gave the breakdown of the proposed investment to include $1.8bn for Egbin Power 2 and overhaul of the existing plant as well as $200 million for its estate.
He said the plant has the capacity to deliver 1320 Megawatts (MW) but was generating 400MW as at the time the firm took over, but it has been overhauled with capacity surging to over 800MW.
“At some points, we generated 1,100MW. We have been doing an average of 1,000MW this year. We are having a future investment including the Egbin 2 expansion, overhauling of Egbin 1 and staff quarters that will cost $2bn.
“Despite these, there are challenges we face that we want this Committee to help us with. The NBET still owes Egbin a debt of N388bn including money for actual energy wheeled out, and interest for late payment,” he noted
He however said gas constraints have cost the firm to lose 106.34MW since June 2020 adding that in 2021, the plant lost N13.68bn to these external constraints.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Theodore Orji, stated that the plant has “done well” in justifying October 1, 2013 power sector’s privatisation by the Federal Government.
Orji queried the transmission and gas constraints, which have downed the power available below actual generation capacity.
“I can say that you are trying your best. You are doing fine and you should be encouraged to do more in terms of investments,” he said.
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