By Yunus S Saliu
To curb the erratic supply of electricity currently facing the country, the Minister of Information, Communication and Infrastructure has assured that plans are underway to replace NAWEC’s old generators causing frequent electricity outages across the country.
Minister DA Jawo disclosed this on Wednesday, September 27 before members of the press corps during his monthly press briefing held at the Ministry’s premises.
According to him the country acquired some of these (present) generators second-hand as decommissioned equipment from other parts of the world three decades ago.
He said NAWEC is implementing a number of projects to increase the generation capacity through the support of the World Bank. And this, he said, entails the supply of new generators, he added that one of them with a 6.5 megawatt capacity will be installed, commissioned and ready for commercial operations by the end of October at the Kotu Power Station.
Also, he said NAWEC will also install a second new generator at the Brikama Power Station which is expected to be commissioned and ready for commercial operation by end of November.
He quickly noted that, “due to delays in finalising the contract for the replacement of the 8.9 megawatt Wartsila engine, the generator will be installed and available for commercial operations by February 2018.”
He added that NAWEC is also implementing a new 11 megawatt generation expansion project at the Kotu Power Station which will be installed, commissioned and ready for commercial operations by the end of December.
Above all, with these additional generators, he said, government expects national electricity power supply situation to definitely stabilize in the short-term, while NAWEC implements other projects like the Islamic Development Bank-funded 20 megawatt project in Brikama, and other plans in keeping with the country’s energy sector roadmap.
