On behalf of Alstom Power, I have been to Kainji power station in Nigeria together with Richard Bottrill (former Kvaerner Boving). The station has been taken over by Mainstream Energy Solution Limited (MESL) just a few months ago, and a huge effort is now being made to make the power station more operable.
The mission this time was to re-commission unit #8 and #11. Unit #11 was up and running when we arrived, but there were severe problems starting and stopping in automatic. Unit #8 was still not in operation, even though the runner blade was repaired during November 2013. There were problems with the runner blade measurement, water level measurement, field breaker, synchronizing equipment.
However, when we left Kainji after 10 days work, both unit #8 and #11 were running producing 60 MW each, and both units could be started/stooped both in automatic and manual.