Nigeria's Shiroro Hydro Plans 300Megawatts from Solar Power Plant
Shiroro Hydroelectric Power Station has unveiled plans to construct a 300megawatts (Mw) photo voltaic solar power plant on the existing plant premises which was conceded to the North-South Power Company (NSP) Limited on November 1, 2013.
The firm’s Chief Technical Officer, Roland Lwiindi, who disclosed this told the Post Privatization Monitoring Team of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) that was on a monitoring exercise at the power station in Shiroro, Niger State recently that once approval was obtained from the necessary authorities, its first phase would come on stream in 2017 and it would be the first of its kind in Africa.
Lwiindi said when completed the plant would add 300mega watts of electricity to the existing 600mega watts. He added that the plant was at present generating 50 per cent of its installed capacity.
He noted that as a hydro powered plant, its generating capacity declines at dry seasons but that the proposed Photo Voltic Solar Facility would shore up its power generation during the off peak seasons. For the current dry season, Lwiindi said the plant would rely on the sun to make up for the short fall in power generation.
While stating that the management of the power plant has the requisite expertise to realize the envisaged gains of privatization, the official said Siemens Nigeria and Tetratec America were the company’s key technical partners.
He assured that with the infrastructural upgrade and technical expertise at the disposal of the company, the country would continue to witness improved power supply.
