Though sources at the airport declined to disclose the capacity of the existing generator, it was, however, learnt it supplied power to both the local and international wings of the airport.
The management of the facility stated that it was ready to revisit the suspended issue of an IPP for all the 21 airports in the country.
When he was contacted by our correspondent on Thursday, the General Manager (Public Affairs) of FAAN, Mr. Akin Olukunle, said that the moves were aimed at finding a permanent solution to the perennial problem of power outage at the airports.
On July 1, a massive power outage at the MMIA occurred when the Power Holding Company of Nigeria cut off its supply.
The PHCN action occurred at the same time when the airport’s generators malfunctioned.
This affected operations, incapacitating the radar and air traffic control and forcing Lagos-bound aircraft to be diverted to Port Harcourt.
The outage also affected the airport’s cooling system, causing the collapse of the air-conditioning system at the arrival and departure halls, such that passengers and other users of the airport had to endure choking heat.
”We cannot afford to be at the mercy of the PHCN all the time,” Olukunle said, adding though that the FAAN management had held talks with the PHCN, which had restored power to FAAN.
Olukunle said, ”Irrespective of that, we are getting new generators. We are going through all the necessary process and we have the support of the Ministry of Transport and the Federal Executive Council. I can assure you that within the present quarter, we will be coming up with something concrete.”
Olukunle said he could not come up immediately with the financial implication of the new generator, but a source close to the technical unit of FAAN said a generator that would replace the present 30-year-old one that serves both the local and international airport, as well as the power requirement of all the organisations that operate within the airport, would cost about N8bn and would have to be manufactured to specification.
“It is not something we can order today and expect it to arrive the next day,” the source said.
Meanwhile, Olukunle said Aisuebeogun, had visited China about two months back, where he held talks with some firms which, he said, had indicated interest in going into partnership with FAAN on its IPP.
”We are still holding talks with them and looking for other investors because it is not just MMIA that we are talking about, but the 21 airports in the country,” Olukunle said.
FAAN‘s recent interest in an IPP is not the first time that the organisation will be making such moves. Early last year, the organisation‘s former MD, Alhaji Muhammad Yusufu, had made the same move and given the same reasons.
Then, Yusufu had noted that “it would be more cost effective for FAAN to build an IPP than to continue to run the airport on generators in the face of the rising cost of diesel.”
Yusufu had lamented that incessant power outage at the airport had destroyed some very sensitive navigational equipment, vital to safe flight operations.
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