The Azura-Edo Power Station is a

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

-powered open cycle electricity generation plant, with a current operational capacity of 461 megawatts, located in

Benin City Benin City is the capital and largest city of Edo State, Edo State, Nigeria. It is the fourth-largest city in Nigeria according to the 2006 census, after Lagos, Kano (city), Kano, and Ibadan, with a population estimate of about 3,500,000 as of ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. This is the first phase of a three-phase construction project of a combined cycle gas plant with planned capacity of 1,500 megawatts.

Location

The power station is located to the northeast of

Edo State Edo, commonly known as Edo State, is a state located in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. As of 2006 National population census, the state was ranked as the 24th populated state (3,233,366) in Nigeria, However there was controversy ...

, approximately , by road, east of

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

, Nigeria's commercial capital. This location lies approximately , by road, southwest of

Abuja Abuja () is the capital and eighth most populous city of Nigeria. Situated at the centre of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it is a planned city built mainly in the 1980s based on a master plan by International Plann ...

, the country's

capital city A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, Department (country subdivision), department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city ...

. The geographical coordinates of the power station are:06°24'32.0"N, 05°41'01.0"E (Latitude:6.408889; Longitude:5.683611).

Overview

The Azura-Edo IPP is an open-cycle gas fired power plant. The power station is often referred to as the "Azura-Edo Independent Power Plant" or "Azura-Edo IPP", because the finance required to build the plant was sourced from the private sector, rather than from the government. The private sector owners of the plant took the construction risk. The post-construction risk and the operational risks are also borne by the plant's owners and their operations and maintenance contractors.

Ownership

The power station is owned by Azura Power Holdings, an investment holding company for independent power projects in Africa. The majority equity investor in the Azura Power Holdings is

Actis Capital Actis is a global investment firm focused on the private equity, energy, infrastructure, and real estate asset classes. Actis is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI), an investor initiative developed b ...

, a private equity firm headquartered in London with US$7.8 billion under management. In 2004, it was spun-off from

CDC Group British International Investment, (formerly CDC Group plc, Commonwealth Development Corporation, and Colonial Development Corporation) is the development finance institution of the UK government. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office ...

, owned by the

Government of the United Kingdom ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal coat of arms of t ...

. The minority equity investors in the plant are include: 1. Africa50, a pan-African infrastructure investment platform. 2. Anergi Group, an energy company active in Africa's emerging economies. 3. Amaya Capital, an investment firm with a focus on the infrastructure sector in Africa and 4. The Edo State Government, which holds a 2.5 percent equity stake in the plant.

Financing

The power station cost US$900 million to build. The financing was obtained from fifteen financial institutions, in nine countries. The table below, illustrates the debt investors in the project. In addition, the

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) is an international financial institution, established in 1944 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, that is the lending arm of World Bank Group. The IBRD offers l ...

(IBRD) provided partial risk guarantees; while the

Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) is an international financial institution which offers political risk insurance and credit enhancement guarantees. These guarantees help investors protect foreign direct investments against ...

(MIGA) provided

political risk Political risk is a type of risk faced by investors, corporations, and governments that political decisions, events, or conditions will significantly affect the profitability of a business actor or the expected value of a given economic action. Po ...

insurance. Both IBRD and MIGA are members of the

World Bank Group The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries. It is the largest and best-known development bank in the world and an observer at the United Nations Development Grou ...

Construction

Construction of the plant began in January 2016 under an Engineering, Procurement and Construction ("EPC") contract with a consortium comprising (a) Siemens AG of Germany (b) Siemens Nigeria Limited and (c) Julius Berger Nigeria Limited. Siemens also provided the turbines, generators, transformers and other electrical hardware. The plant was completed on 30 April 2018, six months ahead of schedule, a record achievement for a plant of this size. Nearly 5 million man-hours of labor were expended on the plant, without a single lost-time injury, and the names of all the developers and construction workers, numbering over 2,000 in total, are now inscribed on a brass plaque at the front of the plant's administration and control building.

References

External links

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Official Azura-Edo App
{{Authority control Energy infrastructure in Nigeria Natural gas-fired power stations in Nigeria 2018 establishments in Nigeria Edo State