KOWEPO Contribution
Korea Western Power (KOWEPO) announced on June 23 that Egbin Thermal Power Plant Unit 5, which is located in Lagos, Nigeria, has started normal operations after an overhaul.
The Egbin Thermal Power Station is the largest power generating station in West Africa, with an installed capacity of 1320 MW consisting of 6 Units at 220MW each. It accounts for 30 percent of the electricity generated in Nigeria. The plant began operations in 1985, but it failed to work properly due to its obsolete equipment and poor management. Accordingly, it had only a 65 percent efficiency and suffered four boiler tube explosions. However, KOWEPO clinched orders for plant operations and maintenance after a consortium of Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and Nigeria’s Sahara Power Group won a contract to operate Egbin Thermal Power Plant in 2013. The company has since improved its efficiency by more than 20 percent and decreased the number of unexpected shutdown accidents to zero.
An official from KOWEPO working at Egbin Thermal Power Plant said, “With the success of the overhaul construction, all the units of the plant have returned to normal operations for the first time in nine years and three months since 2006, greatly helping relieve Nigeria’s chronic power shortage. We will prepare the overhaul of Unit 1 in July without a problem, and show the world’s best technique of plant operations and maintenance in the nation.”
KOWEPO expects to see profits of 15 billion won (US$13.57 million) by 2018 from the operation of Egbin Thermal Power Plant.