American Contractor General Electric (GE) has completed the supply and installation of three 25-megawatt (MW), trailer-mounted, TM2500+ aeroderivative gas turbines to generate uninterrupted power at the 210,000 barrels per day capacity Port Harcourt refinery in Nigeria’s Rivers State. The supply was made through Genesis Electricity Limited, an independent power producer.
“The installation of the mobile gas turbines will ensure that Nigeria’s largest oil refinery has the power it needs to overcome grid outages and return to full capacity for refining”, GE says in a press release. “Before now outages have reduced the refinery’s output to 30 percent of its total maximum capacity”.
The journey to the installation began when NNPC, the Nigerian state hydrocarbon company and owner of the refinery signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Genesis in November 2013 for the installation of GE’s TM2500+ units at refinery. The TM2500+ gas turbines will provide both the base load and backup power to support refinery operations. The agreement also includes the future modernization of Nigeria’s other two refineries.
GE reports that it acted as a catalyst for the project, “taking it to financial closure by working with all stakeholders and partners to structure the project’s equity. This is the first-ever non-recourse project financing for power plants in Nigeria”. GE also says that it is training local engineers to operate and manage the refinery’s TM2500+ units. In GE’s press release, George Njenga, the company’s Distributed Power Leader for sub Saharan Africa, says that GE also has an in-country service and maintenance workshop to service the units. The company maintains that the TM2500+ technology’s high-power density and compact footprint make it the perfect solution to address Port Harcourt Refining Company’s fast ramp-up, on-site power requirements while also ensuring the refinery’s long-term viability,” said
