Nigeria’s Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) has partnered with General Electric (GE) to expand the capacity of Transcorp Ughelli Power’s 360 MW power plant by 1 000 MW over the next three to five years.
The deal, the result of a cooperation agreement signed between the parties last year, would see the output of Nigeria’s largest gas-fired electricity generation asset rise to 700 MW by December 2014.
The parties also planned to add another 115 MW to the plant’s output through the rehabilitation of the damaged GT 15 turbine.
“With this, we’ve taken a bold step in fulfilling our promise to Transcorp’s stakeholders and the people of Nigeria. In a very short period of time, we have achieved significant impact – power production has more than doubled and, with this agreement, we will see increased output before the end of this year,” commented major Transcorp shareholder Heirs Holdings chairperson Tony Elumelu.
The $300-million plant – which was unbundled during the privatisation of Power Holding Company of Nigeria last year – was fully financed by pan-African proprietary investment company Heirs Holdings as part of its commitment to the US-backed Power Africa initiative.
Last year, President Barack Obama initiated a $7-billion multistakeholder partnership between the US government and seven sub-Saharan African countries, to which Heirs Holdings committed $2.5-billion.
The initiative aimed to accelerate investment in Africa’s power sector over the next five years.