Nigeria restarts 225-megawatt gas plant idled since 2020 fire

Nigeria’s Niger Delta Power Holding Co. has kicked off repairs on a 225-megawatt gas-fired power station in Bayelsa State that has sat idle for almost six years after a fire wrecked its control system, part of a broader push to bring stranded power assets back online.

The state-owned utility handed the Gbarain plant over to Schneider Electric and its local partner, TILT Energy Ltd., giving the joint venture 12 months to complete the rehabilitation, the company said. The facility was built under Nigeria’s National Integrated Power Project, a federal program aimed at closing the country’s electricity supply gap, but it never reached commercial operation.

A fire in November 2020 destroyed the plant’s Power Control Module weeks before it was due to be commissioned, according to NDPHC. The damage was severe enough that the entire unit needs replacing rather than repairing, said Ginsau Idris, the company’s general manager for generation projects.

“All parties fully understand their responsibilities and remain committed to delivering the project successfully and within schedule,” Idris said at a handover ceremony marking the start of work.

Jennifer Adighije, NDPHC’s managing director, said the company would have “zero tolerance for delays or project slippages” as contractors, consultants and other stakeholders move into the execution phase. She framed the restart as part of a wider effort under her leadership to recover generation capacity that has been sitting unused across the company’s plants, through rehabilitation and operational upgrades.

Abdullahi Kassim, the company’s executive director for generation, called the 2020 fire a major setback that delayed the project for years. He credited Adighije’s leadership with reviving it, and said work is already underway on supporting infrastructure such as access roads and buildings. Kassim described Gbarain as a strategic asset given its proximity to gas supplies.

Deji Awodeji, TILT Energy’s managing director, said the joint venture would meet the deadline “without compromising quality, safety or international engineering standards.” NDPHC said Schneider Electric and TILT have committed to an accelerated timeline and could finish ahead of the 12-month target.

Nigeria has struggled for years to convert installed generation capacity into reliable power delivered to consumers, with ageing infrastructure, gas supply constraints and transmission bottlenecks all contributing to chronic shortages.

Bringing idle plants like Gbarain back online is seen as a faster and cheaper way to add megawatts to the grid than building new capacity from scratch.

Once restored, the plant is expected to add to available generation on the national grid and support industrial and economic activity in the region, according to NDPHC. The project also forms part of the company’s mandate to maximise returns on investments made under the National Integrated Power Project by returning dormant assets to commercial service.