How Azura Power is Serving as Model to Champion Sector Reforms

To tackle issues of inadequate supply of electricity in Nigeria,  the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu has said Azura Power West Africa should serve as a model on how power generating plants should operate in the country. Precious Ugwuzor reports 

Amidst lamentations on the inadequate supply of electricity in Nigeria,  the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu has said Azura Power West Africa should serve as a model on how power generating plants should operate in the country. 

The minister made this declaration in Benin City during a working visit to Azura Power Plant, as part of the federal government’s deliberate plan to ascertain reasons behind the low power output in recent times. 

He said Azura Power Plant is operating at optimal capacity and feeds the national grid daily with about 460 megawatts of electricity. 

“On the contrary however, in terms of generation, when I got to Azura Edo Power Plant, I was more than impressed with the model they have deployed. It’s a private sector power plant, and I can tell you that with the three turbines installed here with a command capacity of about 460 megawatts, all of them are operational generating 430 megawatts.

“They don’t have issues of gas supply, they don’t have technical issues, they don’t have issues of breakdown of turbines and they don’t also have operational logjam, that is the way things should run in Nigeria.

“I am very satisfied with their operations , the turbines are new and they have an expansion plan to install additional three gas plants of equivalent capacity and upon that there are plans also to install steam plants. At the end they are looking at an expansion of about 1,500 megawatts and if that happens here that means that the issue of shortage in power supply will be history.”

Adelabu noted that the company has firm gas supply contract and the major difference between Azura power and other power plants is the fact that they are able to meet their obligations with gas suppliers as at when due.

“They don’t owe suppliers so if I am a gas company, my efforts and loyalty will be to the company that pays promptly, so we are going to use that as a model to restructure and engineer all federal government owned power plants to ensure that the same template is applied into projects that are ongoing across the country.”

The minister challenged players in the industry to be more patriotic in their dealings with government, saying the current short supply and significant decline in the generation of electricity is caused by the inadequate supply of gas, urging owners of power plants to adopt the model of Azura by paying and purchasing gas to ensure hitch free supply from gas companies. 

According to him, beyond the push and intervention by government, industry players have a big role to play as clearly demonstrated by Azura, not defaulting in ensuring that daily production and supply to the  national grid is sustained uninterruptedly. 

“We know there are factors militating against generation which is gas supply, but let me announce to you that there is huge progress being made as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has mandated the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Budget and National Planning and the Ministry of Power to work out modalities to defray outstanding debt to gas suppliers and generation  companies in the power sector. 

He stated that in no distant time it will come out with a repayment plan and guarantee instruments and as well allow gas companies to access federal government gas wells in order to settle debts owed by the government. 

“Very soon, effective and consistent gas supply will resume to enable power plants operating below capacity to improve in the generation component of the power sector value chain,” he added. 

Earlier, the Managing Director Azura Power West Africa, Engineer Edu Okeke  disclosed that the power plant was built and completed eight months ahead of schedule because of the technical expertise of the construction team and because of the commitment and patriotic style of the company. 

He said the completion of the project  schedule is first of its kind in this part of the world, adding that the operational metrics of the company guarantees quality and speed in service delivery. 

“Our operational metrics are best in class and availability close to 100 per cent at all times, we help to stabilise the grid to make sure that other power plants are able to feed on what is available, we also believe that our model is the model to go in order  to eliminate in entirety the challenges associated with inadequate supply of electricity.”

According to him,  the competence and experience of Azura over the years can be replicated across the sector to fast track the needed development in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in Nigeria.

Okeke said the company constructed a gas station within the power plant to ensure steady and uninterrupted supply of gas to power the turbines, describing the generation of electricity as real time business that requires competence, expertise commitment and above all patriotism to the country. 

Azura Edo was built by a consortium composed of Siemens and Julius Beger in exactly 28 months, its completion occured eight months ahead of its 36 months construction schedule, and without a single lost time injury.

As a result of this best in class construction  performance, Azura Edo IPP has become a performance benchmark for other large scale infrastructure projects across the African continent. 

The plant was commissioned in the first quarter of 2018 and attained full commercial operations, since then the plant operational performance has been amongst the highest of any new built plant  any where in the world. 

Its availability rate to date  has exceeded 94 per cent, and its equivalent forced outage rate has been lower than one  per cent. 

The plant is also Nigeria’s most heavily despatched, with rates averaging 90 per cent, during the last four quarters, in other words, each of the plant ‘s three turbines are constantly in operation and generating power as close to their maximum capacity. The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) also rely heavily on the plant’s PFI capability to stabilise the grid at all times. 

However, the majority and controlling share holder in Azura is Actis LLP, a specialist emerging market growth Capital investor in London. Actis has raised $15 billion from global investors of which more than $3 BIllion has been deployed in Africa across 19 countries. It has a specialist  team investing and operating in the power sector, in its global markets which has committed $5 BIllion to energy investments across more than 25 countries. 

Actis power sector investment accounts for around 20 GW of electricity generating and distribution capacity delivered to over 88 million customers worldwide. 

Consequently, during the six years in commercial operation, the company has provided above nine percent of the power sent to national grid.

Azura devotes $1 million annually for its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), known as the Power to Change initiative  aimed at transforming the lives of people through sustainable livelihood, sustainable health, sustainable education and sustainable infrastructure.

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Very soon, effective and consistent gas supply will resume to enable power plants operating below capacity to improve in the generation component of the power sector value chain