About 17 kilometers east of New Bussa in Nigeria’s north-central Niger State, Africa’s third-longest river,the Niger River, flows through

the Kayinji Dam, rumbling loudly and pouring downstream.

Located on the Niger River, the Kayinji hydroelectric power station was built in 1968, but due to the age of maintenance, once “zero

power generation”. Since 2011, the restoration project of Kayinji Hydropower Station has been progressing gradually with Chinese

enterprises as the project implementer, adopting Chinese standards, Chinese equipment and Chinese solutions. Now, this hydropower

hub is ushering in its “second spring”.

Kayinji hydropower station is Nigeria’s largest hydropower station in terms of total installed capacity,initially designed to install 12 sets

of hydroelectric generator sets, but the actual installation of only 8 sets.Due to operational and management problems, the power

generation capacity of the hydropower plant is very insufficient.

As one of Africa’s major economies and the most populous country in Africa, Nigeria’s demand for electricity is self-evident.In 2011,

China Electric Construction Group East China Survey and Design Research Institute Company Limited (hereinafter referred to as

CECEC East China Institute Company Limited) was awarded the contract for the rehabilitation project of three of the units at Kayinji

Hydropower Station through competitive bidding, and it was completed in 2016.By the end of 2021,CECEC East China Institute Company

Limited was in the competition with many well-known European and American hydropower contractors and successfully signed a

new contract to carry out the rehabilitation of unit 9 and the renewal project of units 3 and 4 of the hydropower station.

The rehabilitation of Unit 9 was completed in mid-April this year, which alone will increase Nigeria’s available generating capacity by

about 2%. The renewal installation of Units 3 and 4 at the two spare pits at the hydropower plant is expected to be connected to

the grid in 2027.

“Upon completion of the project, it will expand the total installed capacity of the hydropower plant from 760 MW to 980 MW, in

addition to releasing another 300 MW of power generation from the aging Kayinji hydropower plant into the local power grid.”

Hu Dingguo, deputy general manager of the Africa region of CECC’s East China Academy Company, said.

Below the nameplate of one unit of the hydropower station, the words “Harbin Electric Machinery Plant Co.Harbin Electric

Machinery Plant Co., Ltd. design and equipment supply manager Yang Manlin introduced the hydroelectric power plant in the

No. 3, No. 4 unit all use Chinese technology, Chinese standards, in the unit’s operational stability and efficiency have reached

the world’s leading level.

Restoring an old hydropower plant in distant Africa is no small challenge for Chinese engineers. Due to the long history of the

hydropower plant, key original information, including that required for the hydro generator unit renovation, was seriously missing.

“We didn’t have any technical documents from that era, and it was difficult to make the unit restoration achieve a certain level of

efficiency and stability, as well as to match the external conditions such as power transmission and transformation.” Yang

Manlin recalled.

In this regard, the Chinese engineering design team used on-site measurement and reverse modeling technology to successfully

realize unit reconstruction and solve the problems of new and old equipment interface and coordination.

Deep underwater restoration is another challenge that the Chinese engineering team needs to face.Zhao Shenjun, the person in

charge of the underwater restoration project of Kayinji spillway of China Electric Power Construction East China Institute Company,

introduced that the project team set up a joint technical group of “domestic experts + first-line backbone”, and overcame a series

of problems such as high difficulty of large-volume restoration and low efficiency of underwater construction.

The Chinese engineering team not only implemented the hydropower station restoration project with superior technology and high

sense of responsibility, but also “taught people to fish” and helped cultivate local talents.

“Chinese experts work rigorously and efficiently, and in less than two years, I have learned a lot about power systems and turbine

unit performance optimization,” he says. said Stanley Ojeshuku, a mechanical engineer who is carrying out routine maintenance

work at the hydropower plant with his colleagues.

Lamu Audu, general manager of Mainstream Energy Nigeria Limited, the owner of the Kayinji hydropower plant project, told reporters

that the Chinese team played a key role in the restoration of the hydropower plant, “Their work is timely, accurate and reliable,

which is a model in international cooperation.”