Reps Uncover Malfunctioning Turbines At Afam

The House of Representatives has made a starling discovery of the problem militating against efficient power distribution from the Afam Power Station.

The House Committee on Power led by its chairman, Hon Patrick Ikhariale uncovered that GT19 and GT20 power generating machines were malfunctioning due to lack of turn around maintenance or overhauling since installation seven years ago.

The two turbines are among five phases of turbines installed between 1963 and 2008 and have not been overhauled since then, resulting in frequent epileptic power supply to Nigerians. Sources said the Federal Government would spend more than N5billion to re-install the two turbines.

Speaking to The Tide at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, after a visit to the station, House Committee on Power, Chairman, Patrick Ikhariale said power business was a tripartite business when it comes to generation, transmission and distribution.

According to him, the Afam Power Station had capacity of about 946 megawatts. He indicated that about two or three machines had broken down, a development that negatively affected the quantum of energy to the station.

He expressed the hope that funds would be released to replace the damaged turbines as the executive had a good rapport with the House in this area.

He recalled that in 2009, the House of Representatives passed a budget of about N9billion to acquire 720 transformers, two of which were given to each of the House members for distribution to their areas across the country and reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment in giving the people democracy dividends.

Assuring Nigerians of the Federal Government’s efforts at achieving more than 90 per cent in the power sector between now and 2013, he explained that his committee also discovered the real cause of the recent incident in which the  people of Itu Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State were thrown into darkness.

Ikhariale said the transformer serving the area got burnt as a result of overloading the 30 year old transformer without a backup, pointing out that his committee investigated the incident with a view to finding lasting solution to the power problem in the area.

Shedie Opara