Sapele is a 480 MW gas power station in Delta, Nigeria. It is operated by Ihovbor Generating Company. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 541k homes (estimated). It ranks #40 of 69 Nigeria power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 2012, it is around 14 years old — relatively modern. In context, gas supplies about 68.7% of Nigeria's electricity; the national grid averages 456 gCO₂/kWh (31.3% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1000028.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM tracker 2026 (location L100000406809); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 480 MW, Sapele is around the median gas plant in Nigeria (501 MW). Technically it is described as Steam. Gas plants burn natural gas either in open-cycle turbines for fast peaking, or in combined-cycle units that recover exhaust heat in an HRSG to reach roughly 55–62% efficiency — the cleanest-burning fossil option.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Ihovbor Generating Company.
This gas plant burns natural gas in a turbine — often in a combined-cycle setup — to generate electricity. It sits in a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen Am) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 5.9°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
This site has effectively no heating season (tropical/equatorial climate), so winter heat loss is not the driver here. The thermal concern shifts to year-round process heat and humidity/heat-driven corrosion of hot equipment.
A gas turbine here also runs ~8% below its ISO (15°C) rating at this annual mean (typical CCGT curve, estimate).
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a corrosive environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C4 — High), with humidity / wetness the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #28 largest gas power plant of 48 in Nigeria by capacity.
Nigeria has 48 gas power plants in this dataset, together about 30,326 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 5.9254, 5.645 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Sapele is a 480 MW source-record gas power plant in Delta, Nigeria, commissioned in 2012.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 540,617 homes (estimated).
Sapele is operated by Ihovbor Generating Company.
