Abia State stands a good chance of becoming Nigeria’s electricity hub, according to Nigeria’s former Minister of Power, Professor Bart Nnaji.
Nnaji, now the chairman of the Geometric Power group which generates and distributes electricity in the Aba Ring-fenced Area that covers nine of the 17 local government areas (LGAs) in Abia State, was speaking on Thursday when a team of international electricity consultants visited the group in its head office at the Osisioma Industrial Layout in Aba.
“There are two major power plants about to be built in the Aba Ringfence”, Nnaji told the team which was led to his office by the Abia State Commissioner for Power and Public Utilities, Engineer Ikechukwu Monday, and the Special Adviser to Governor Alex Otti on Energy, Engr Kachi Etolue.
“One of the power plants is a joint venture between General Electric of the United States, the biggest and oldest power equipment-manufacturing firm in the world, and Geometric Power.
“Located in Ukwa West LGA of Abia State, the power utility, which will generate 1,080 megawatts, is the first joint venture GE has ever signed with a local company.
‘It would have gone far if not for the Federal Government’s suspension over five years ago of the World Bank partial risk guarantee (PRG) of the power purchase agreements (PPAs)”.
The visiting international team of consultants included Nico Peterschmidt of INENUS, Dipta Majumdar, also of INENUS, and Rajesh Kumar Jain of International Solar Alliance comprising over 100 countries, including Nigeria, that signed an agreement for the development and use of solar energy.
The group is working in Nigeria currently on the invitation of the Nigerian government to help in providing mini solar grids to areas in the country underserved and unserved with electricity, explained Peterschimidt.
Peterschmidt disclosed that the World Bank has provided the Federal Government with a $ 410 million loan to make available to subnational entities for the solar grids, with Abia angling to be among the first states to access it.
“We are going to work closely with the government”, pledged Nnaji, “to ensure that Abia realises its ambitious electricity plans, including participating actively in the creation of the Abia State Electricity Regulatory Commission.
“Governor Otti has been of immense assistance to Geometric Power for decades”.
Commending Prof Nnaji’s favourable disposition towards the new Abia State’s electricity initiatives, unlike in some states where the DisCos with power franchises there opposed similar moves, the Commissioner for Power and Public Utilities, who is a former General Electric executive, observed: “The facility fits into the vision of sending a bill to the Abia State House of Assembly setting up the state Electricity Regulatory Commission.
“There are far-flung communities in Nigeria where electricity distribution companies hesitate to give power because of their difficult terrains and even when provided with electricity, the people wouldn’t be able to pay the commercial rates.
“As a key stakeholder, the state government felt that the new electricity arrangement for Abia can’t progress without Geometric Power’s involvement, hence our visit today.
“Besides, some of the areas without electricity fall into the Aba Ringfence serviced by Geometric Power which took over the responsibility of providing the areas with electricity only two years ago”.
Ugo Opiegbe, the Aba Power managing director, enumerated some of the key investments his firm has made, including providing five brand new substations and refurbishing three legacy ones, installing 150,000 kilometres of overhead wires, and a network expansion that will see a new feeder commissioned within one month.
“We are ahead of the other 11 DisCos in Nigeria in several areas like having bilateral agreements with Gencos, despite meeting only five per cent of customers metered when we took over, a problem we have been addressing aggressively as the population of metered customers is now about 30%”, he asserted.
“We officially inherited about 131,000 customers, but that number has climbed significantly and will likely double by the time we meter all our customers and complete our enumeration activities, including bringing back key industrialists who voluntarily disconnected from the public network on account of unreliable and poor supplies”.
The international consultants and the Abia State government officials expressed satisfaction with Geometric Power’s “forward-looking approach and immense investments worth at least $800m in the Aba Ringfence, making it the largest investment in the Southeast”.