Securing power supplies in Nigeria

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Monday 7 March 2022 09:50 AM

Securing power supplies in Nigeria

On a peninsula in the heart of the Nigerian capital Lagos, one of the largest and most spectacular combined commercial and residential projects in Africa is underway – the Eko Atlantic development. The centrepieces of the development are the three 140-metre-high Azuri Towers housing luxury apartments and modern offices, each demanding significant amounts of power to support homes and businesses.

The challenge to economic growth

Nigeria’s power sector, however, has experienced a barrage of setbacks in recent years. Despite the efforts of the federal government to increase generation capacity to more than 12,000 megawatts (MW), transmission and distribution capacity allow only 4,000MW of power to be transmitted at any one time.

As a result, business losses due to electrical outages average around 16% of annual sales, making the lack of reliable electricity one of the greatest challenges to economic growth in the country.

But even if electricity could be transmitted easily, the capacity would be insufficient to support Nigeria's 195 million inhabitants. So in order to keep the lights on, the solution for many private homes and commercial premises is generators, with Nigerians reportedly spending more than $14 billion annually on generators and generator fuel.

A robust solution

For Rolls-Royce, the Eko Atlantic development marks a milestone as the 100th mtu generator installed in Nigeria since 2015, which combined provide an output of 150MW for residential, commercial and industrial facilities.

On average, our mtu engines consume up to 10% less fuel than a comparable engine of the same size, ultimately reducing the long-term cost of operations. In addition, with a life span of 84,000 hours before a total engine overhaul is needed, the investment reduces not only total ownership cost but also downtime, while providing longer intervals between large scale maintenance.

Operating at an 85% load factor for continuous power applications, the engines provide high reliability and availability of power. They can even operate in high humidity environments with a maximum temperature of 55 degrees centigrade, with altitude having no discernible impact on efficiencies.

The gensets installed so far deliver mostly continuous or long-time backup operations for telecom data centres and industries as diverse as steel, glass and food, as well as in a number of hotels.

Collaborating for our customers

At Rolls-Royce, our efforts have been focused on delivering the best possible service to Nigerians and we have worked closely with local representatives such as multinational consultancy and engineering firms Jubaili Bros. and Mikano International Limited over the past six years. Together, we have been able to provide 150 megawatts of electric capacity (MWe) to customers in Nigeria, as well as the certainty of receiving local support and service from staff trained by Rolls-Royce.

Nabil Suleiman, General Manager, Ikeja Branch of Jubaili Bros, explains that the support from Rolls-Royce is comprehensive and extends beyond training technicians. “Our work with Rolls-Royce gives us more opportunities to operate across a variety of sectors. The product has a reputation for quality and durability, with an extensive warranty. Working with the Rolls-Royce team, for instance, we were able to design a custom soundproof encloser for one of the generators we installed at the Azuri Towers. This is just one of the opportunities provided by this relationship.”

"The mtu units are very reliable and work well in the Nigerian market," adds Lokam Jouni, Deputy Managing Director of Mikano International Limited.

Powering Nigeria’s Azuri Towers

The Azuri Towers will use two of our 1,000 kVA mtu diesel generators, able to withstand the high demands of the development which will host the biggest dual-purpose tower complex in West Africa. According to reports, the tallest two towers will be some of the tallest residential buildings in Africa and will be home to 130 families. Thanks to the mtu power units, home and business owners on the peninsula can look ahead with more certainty and the guarantee of continuous power.