The Aba Independent Power Project (Aba IPP), owned and managed by Geometric Power Ltd, is a strategic investment that should be replicated in other parts of Nigeria for the country’s rapid development, according to two National Assembly members from Enugu State.
“This independent power project, the largest investment in the Southeast worth $800m, is strategic in the sense it provides electricity which is fundamental to the development of any economy,” Senator Okey Ezea who represents the Enugu North senatorial zone and House of Representatives member Mark Chidi Obetta who represents the Nsukka/Igbo Eze South told journalists this afternoon when they visited Professor Bart Nnaji, the former Minister of Power who founded the Geometric Power group, at the company’s corporate headquarters in the Osisioma Industrial Estate in Aba, Abia State.
“Electricity drives the modern economy, but unfortunately in Nigeria, the power system has long been in a shambles. Geometric Power shows that Nigerians can run this critical sector professionally and to the highest international standards.
“The Southeast Development Commission cannot succeed without efficient power supply, as has been the fate of similar development commissions across the country”.
Senator Ezeah lauded Geometric Power for siting the independent power project in Aba because its enormous potential as Nigeria’s foremost Indigenous industrial centre could not be realized for decades owing to the messy electricity supply, prompting the then World Bank President, James Wolfohnson, and the then Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in March 2003 to urge Professor Bart Nnaji who had led a small team of Nigerian engineers to successfully build and run the 22 Megawat Abuja Emergency Power Plant from 2001 to 2003 to consider establishing a dedicated power plant for Aba manufacturers.
He urged Nigerian entrepreneurs to consider investing in new power plants in different cities and towns for local power supplies to reduce technical losses significantly, among other benefits.
Agreeing with Power Minister Adebayo Adelabu that most distribution companies (DisCos) cover tremendously large territories which he called a huge impediment to efficient management, Senator Ideke said that the minister’s suggestion for the splitting of the coverage areas into smaller territories so that they can be more manageable “should be looked into.
“Aba shows what should be done”, he declared.
The senator, however, decried irregular natural gas supply to the Geometric Power Plant since last March, a month after Vice President Kashim Shettima commissioned it on behalf of President Bola Tinubu.
“It is a national embarrassment that this new plant should be allowed to stay for months without a single molecule of gas, compelling the utility to import electricity from the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) at an incredibly high amount in its desperation to provide power to its numerous customers, especially industrialists”, observed Ezea.
The senator, however, commended the Geometric Power leadership for working round the clock to get improved gas supplies in the last few days from a subsidiary of the Nigerian National National Petroleum Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) after the initial gas supplier encountered months of serious operational challenges.
“Vice President Shettima and the NNPCL Group Managing Director, Melee Kyari, also deserve congratulations for their patriotic role in the improved gas supplies”, noted Ezeah.
On his part, The Honorable Obetta noted that once “the gas issue is resolved completely which will enable Geometric Power to fire all three available turbines now, there will be constant, quality and affordable power in the nine local government areas in Abia State that constitute the Aba Ringfence, since each turbine can generate 47MW.
“I will, therefore, advise the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) and the five Southeast states and even neighbouring states to reach an agreement with Geometric Power to get all their supplies from Aba.
“Geometric Power will now approach the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) for an ugrade of their current 188MW generating licence.
“Contrary to the thinking in some quarters, Southeast states don’t need to build their power plants, as everything they need can be available from Aba.
“This will be a win-win for every party, namely, the states, the power distributing firms, the power generating company, the businesses, the people, and the communities.
“The rest of the country should follow the Geometric Power example of building a relatively small captive market for efficient management and also follow the Geometric Power model of deriving supplies from nearby power plants to reduce technical losses and costs.”