Shell, GE ink Multi-year Service Agreement on 650MW Afam VI cycle power plant
Pursuant to Nigeria’s drive to steady electricity supply, General Electric (GE) on Thursday announced the sealing of a new Multi- year Service Agreement (MYA) deal with Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) for its 650MW Afam VI combined cycle power plant located in the South-eastern part of the country.
The target amongst others includes providing enough electricity equal to power over 3 million Nigerian homes at peak performance.
According to the agreement, there will be improvement in power availability, reliability and output for up to 200,000 Nigerian homes with marginal drop in operational costs.
SPDC and its partners in the joint venture it operates, built the plant in a significant contribution to help meet Nigeria’s electricity needs.
Dr. Philip Mshelbila, General Manager, Gas of SPDC said “At optimal performance, the Afam VI plant can provide up to 15% of the total national grid-connected electricity, this agreement will ensure we reach this performance objective and deliver much needed power to the national grid”.
“Since its commissioning in 2008, Afam VI Power Plant has delivered more than 25.97 million Megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity into the Nigerian market and won an award by the United Nations for reducing carbon emissions through environment-friendly operations” he added.
Business Hilights gathered that the agreement will cover planned maintenance for the three existing GE GT13E2 gas turbines as well as one GE steam turbine. In addition, the order includes GE’s MXL2 upgrades (https://goo.gl/MgJKkh) to help increase the plant capacity by up to 30MW while increasing its efficiency.
In a keynote address, Elisee Sezan, General manager, GE’s Power Services business for Sub-Saharan Africa averred that “We have a long history of collaboration with Shell Petroleum, which has the largest footprint of all the international oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria, having supported the plant operations on power generation since its inception in 2008”.
“With this latest agreement, we are working to bring improved performance and enhanced efficiency to their operations.”
In addition to increasing power output by up to 30MW, upgrades on the turbines are expected to deliver a combined-cycle efficiency increase, resulting in significant fuel savings and reduced CO2 emissions. GE’s solutions will also extend inspection intervals for the gas turbines reducing maintenance and repair expenses—which, in turn, will reduce overall plant costs and result in improving profitability.
GE’s GT13E2 gas turbine offers industry-leading efficiency with up to 55% efficiency levels in combined cycle operation, superior fuel versatility that enables a wide range of fuel compositions without hardware changes while substantially extending standard inspection intervals. Its unique operating profile capability offers the potential for financial savings by allowing customers to react quickly to fluctuating power demands, while keeping costs in line.
“With less than 50% of the population having access to electricity, Nigeria needs power.” said Lazarus Angbazo, CEO GE Nigeria. “This agreement demonstrates GE’s unwavering commitment to continuously collaborate with public and private institutions to drive investment and innovative technologies in the power generation industry” he added.
It would be recalled that GE has been operating in Nigeria for over 40 years, with more than 900 employees, 90% of whom are Nigerians. The company has businesses spanning across key sectors including oil and gas, power, healthcare and rail transportation.
