Chairman of Cummins Cogeneration and CEO of Powergas Africa,
Mr Deepak Khilnani, reiterated the Group’s confidence in the Nigerian energy
sector and laid out some of their key investment plans for the next three years.
Speaking at a Cummins co-hosted ‘Energy Sustainability and
Security: The way forward’ with the UK Department for International Trade. The
Chairman stated, “I am very proud of the end to end service capability we have
built in Nigeria: having Engineering and Design capabilities, power generation
and virtual gas supply in house we are truly able to deliver projects on time
and guarantee reliable power. Most importantly we are paid for performance –
delivery of kilo watts.”
Deepak stressed the importance of energy development not only
from a company perspective, but also from a development outlook. The World Bank
draws a strong positive correlation between economic growth and power
availability. Moreover, cost effective and reliable power is the backbone of a robust
industrialised economy. With one of the lowest per capita electrification rates
in the world and high-energy costs, Cummins Power Generation Nigeria is
committed to driving cost effective energy solutions across Nigeria.
In the next three years Cummins expects to add an additional
450 MW of electricity onto the National Grid in Nigeria, over 10% of the
nations current electricity production.
The high performance lean burn Cummins industrial gas generators
are manufactured in the UK and are now the industry leading standard, delivering
very effective savings in fuel consumption to end users. Deepak Khilnani, who
is also a Member of the Oil and Gas Advisory Board of UKTI
(UK Government-Industry Consultancy Body), added closer workings with The Department for International
Trade is helping drive our mission to improve power availability in Nigeria.
John Woodruffe, the Deputy Director of The Department For
International Trade, Nigeria, added “it is always good to see such great
companies such as Cummins bringing their innovations and skills to Nigeria. The
Department for International Trade is proud of its close working relationship
with companies such as Cummins in their bid to contribute to the improvement of
electricity generation within Nigeria.”
Cummins Power Generation Nigeria’s energy solution is also extremely
environmentally friendly as the primary fuel source is natural gas, which emits
approximately one-tenth the emissions of diesel. Not only is gas less than half
the price of diesel in Nigeria today, but it’s also much cleaner. Moreover, gas
is domestically sourced compared to imported diesel, thereby boosting the local
economy and creating thousands of high skilled employment opportunities.
With more regular piped gas outages, Powergas Africa has
fast-tracked the construction of some new Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) stations
to meet demand in the West, East and ‘middle belt’ of Nigeria.
“We want to take gas to the North. Moreover, Powergas is
developing a portfolio approach whereby if gas outage occurs in one region, we
will still be able to deliver gas to our customers by operating multiple CNG
mother stations,” said Deepak Khilnani.
Confident of an economic revival in Nigeria, Powergas is
building 2 new compression and liquefaction stations by 2018, with enough CNG
and LNG to generate 500 MW of electricity at power plants across Nigeria where
the pipeline does not reach.
“The CNG development acts as a backbone to the growth in the power
generation business as we are able to guarantee fuel availability,” stated The Group
Chairman. The 'virtual pipeline' offering provides natural gas to clients who
are not connected to the pipeline.
Powergas recently received the prestigious “Best Compressed
& Liquefied Natural Gas Production Company” of the Year in 2016 from The Institute
for Government Research Leadership Technology (IGRLT). Following an intensive
selection process, the Award was bestowed to an internationally recognised
organization that is performance driven, innovative and contributes positively
to the economic growth and prosperity of Nigeria.
