The Nigeria’s biggest thermal power station, Egbin Power Plc, is considering various funding options following plans to raise power generation to 3,000 Megawatts, MW.
The plants’ owners are looking at raising $1.8 billion to more than double generation capacity as it seeks to boost output and export electricity to West African countries.
According to them, the combination of debt and equity to meet the funding requirements ahead of the start of construction work in the second quarter of next year is the priority.
Bloomberg reported that “The plan is to raise the fund to be available to kick off” in an email it received from the company. There was no further details as the funding arrangements are being firmed up.
Egbin Power Plc, owned by Sahara Group, plans to build the second phase of its 1,320-megawatt power plant by installing “high efficiency gas combined cycle power plants,” that will produce an additional 1,754 megawatts electricity.
The company further explained that the first phase of the expansion project will begin with the construction of open-cycle turbines next year and will be completed with a closed cycle by 2025.
The company acquired the power plant in 2013 when the government disposed of state-owned electricity generation and distribution assets to the private sector to make them efficient and help curb blackouts.
Nigeria, has over 13,000 megawatts of installed electricity-production capacity, with only about 4,500 megawatts dispatched to the grid daily, in part because of dilapidated transmission infrastructure.
The government’s privatization agency is now proposing to sell the transmission network in a bid to attract the investment needed to improve its capacity.
It further plans to sell power to neighboring countries through the West Africa Power Pool, a specialized institution of the Economic Community of West African States established to create a common electricity market for the region.
The company said that “We would have a state-of-the-art facility that is generating clean energy sustainably and paving the way for seamless energy transition in Nigeria and beyond.”