By Jerome Onoja Okojokwu-Idu
Kohler Power Systems Nigeria, part of Kohler Power Systems EMEA, is targeting to manufacture about 2,500 generators across five years, as part of its commitment to help meet the Nigeria’s critical power demand across industry, construction, commercial and residential purposes in Nigeria.
Kohler-SDMO, the parent company of Kohler Power Systems Nigeria, represents 10 percent of the world market of generators. With its assembly and testing facility in Lagos, the company says that it is working on producing 600 generators this year and aims to reach 2,500 by 2027.
The engineering expertise of Kohler-SDMO is dedicated to producing bespoke energy production plants. In order to meet the broad spectrum of independent electricity supply needs, Kohler-SDMO exploits the expertise of its R&D Department and ISO17025 accredited laboratory.
Nigerian market
In an interview with Majorwaves, the Nigeria National Sales Manager of Kohler Power Systems Nigeria, Mr Daniel Roudaut said that even though there are markets for its products in other African countries like Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso, satisfying the Nigerian market remains its priority.
“First of all, we’ve to supply the Nigerian market. And it’s true that if our factory grows enough, Nigeria can easily become the African hub, of course,” Roudaut said.
“It’s very factual. We’ve access to countries like Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso where actually they don’t have ports, and all these type of things. So it’s not the target for today, because the target today is to supply the Nigerian market, which is huge enough for our activity as at today. But as a long term policy, yes, of course, that’s a target. We’ve to have Nigeria as African hub.”
He noted that aside France, which is the manufacturing base of the Kohler-SDMO, it is only in Nigeria that the company has assembly plant.
“Basically, our target is to manufacture this year 600 units — 600-700 units. We want to achieve here what we’re achieving in the world. SDMO-Kohler represents 10 percent of the world’s market of generators. So that’s what we want to achieve in Nigeria, reaching 10 percent of the market; which means that the market being run with about $250 million a year. We’re speaking of let’s say 20,000 machines to 25,000 machines per year. Our target in five years is to reach 2,000 to 2,500 machines. More if we can, but at least 2,000 to 2,500 machines, which split as follows: like 600 this year, 1,000 next year, 1,500 the year after, 2,000 in four years and 2,500 in five years,” he said.
“aside France, which is the manufacturing base of the Kohler-SDMO, it is only in Nigeria that the company has assembly plant.
Speaking on the specification of its generators, he said that unlike other manufacturers, Kohler’s generators have big radiators and are good for “severe environment” like Nigeria, and they are also less sensitive to fuel quality.
According to Roudaut, the company currently has about eight distributors in Nigeria, adding that the distributors of its products provide after-sale service, but the company usually intervenes when serious issues around after sale occurs
Expansion of generator range
Early in May, Kohler Power Systems Nigeria, announced the expansion of the genset range available to Nigerian customers. With this, the company said that customers in the country will now be able to access five high-power KDI generators – supplied from its Lagos assembly and testing facility.
The KDI generators have an optimal power-to-size ratio and adapted cooling capacity. Robust enough to handle load impacts, the 5 KDI generators maintain frequency and voltage at all times, to ensure the quality of the electricity they produce.
The new generators join the existing range of Kohler generators available from the 2179m2 facility in Ikeja, Lagos as well as John Deere, Doosan and Volvo, Mitsubishi and KD Series engines.
Fully equipped to assemble and test gensets imported from Kohler’s production site in Brest, France, Kohler said that the Lagos plant includes over 700m2 of storage space for 400 gensets, allowing for the quick supply of most generators.
According to the company, chassis, alternators, engines and control panels are combined to local specifications and tested to ensure they meet local rules on noise levels, adding that customers for these generators then benefit from local customer support, which is in turn supported by Kohler’s global services.
“Our ability to offer our customers in Nigeria a combination of local assembly in Lagos and global partnerships means that they benefit from optimum quality not only in the products they choose but in the services that support them too,” explained Roudaut in a statement.
“Further expansion of generator ranges is planned for the near future – meaning customers in the country – and across the African continent – will have access to an even wider selection of the most efficient and most effective mission-critical power on the market.”
Sustainability
With a peculiar engineering design, the company’s executive stated that the gensets are manufactured to fit any market due to their strong component parts – engines and radiators, in particular.
Roudaut noted that sustainability is one of the hallmarks for Kohler and the company goes the extra length to prove its environmental stewardship.
“Because we design and make use of strong engines, these go as far as 50,000 hours and even beyond in severe weather areas like Bauchi and some northern parts of Nigeria.
“Our ability to offer our customers in Nigeria a combination of local assembly in Lagos and global partnerships means that they benefit from optimum quality not only in the products they choose but in the services
On being asked about the end-of-life treatment of the gensets, Roudaut stated that “refurbishment is the immediate strategy, such that it avails the generators an additional 10 to 15,000 hours. We redo the engines and the alternators.
He explained that maintenance is key to keeping the units even longer. But beyond refurbishment, he said “currently, we are managing end-of-life generators on a case by case basis to ensure all waste materials and products are handled responsibly.”
“And yes, we are mindful of noise pollution, so our gensets are designed with large radiators. These large radiators absorb the noise and we are able to keep the doors of the generators shut – no noise”, he said.
Fuel Quality Indemnity
Regarding the nature of the gensets and how they respond to the quality of imported fuel which caused quite a scare in recent times, the country manager noted that the peculiarity of the Kohler generating sets designs has covered every possible challenge as such.
“Unfortunately, we understand the terrain here in West Africa and the challenges with the spec of fuel used. But, I’ll tell you that our gensets are built to be robust, such that the engines are not sensitive to the quality of fuel used”, Roudaut quipped.
Local content
Kohler-SDMO Industries offers training modules covering generating sets and their component parts, either at its training centre in Brest, France, or on site at its distributors’. In consonance with this policy, Kohler Power Systems Nigeria, has been training and building the capacity of its Nigerian engineers on generators assemblage and manufacturing.
Roudaut told Majorwaves that the company engages in robust training of its engineers to build local capacity, noting that apart from him all the engineers working in the company are Nigerians.
He also said that the company trains its Nigerian distributors at its facility in Lagos, and sometimes sends some of its employees to France for more rigorous training asides other online training it organises for them.
“In Kohler Group, the idea is really to work with the local people. In other words, we train them and local people have to be independent. That’s our philosophy; that’s why we’re working with local distributors — Nigerian distributors. In other words, for us, the most important is that each territory is independent,” Roudaut said.
The KOHLER-SDMO brand is distributed in more than 180 countries via a network of local partners who benefit from continuous support and training in new tools and products.
