The nine Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Abia State serviced by Aba Power were not affected by the latest national grid collapse that occurred around 8 am on Saturday, October 19, an investigation has revealed.
This is because Geometric Power Group, the owner of Aba Power, Nigeria’s 12th electricity distribution firm, generates and distributes electricity to Aba without going through the national transmission network anymore.
Ugo Opiegbe, the Aba Power Managing Director, confirmed to newsmen in Aba on Sunday afternoon in a telephone interview that Aba Power’s coverage area was not affected by the grid collapse, the third in one week, though it was restored hours later by Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) engineers who ascribed the latest collapse to an explosion in the transmission network.
Aba Power has an embedded generation model because it has a power plant dedicated to providing it with electricity.
“This is the model the country should adopt to develop a competitive electric power sector”, declared Ejike Dike, a mechanical engineer and business consultant in a statement in Abuja today.
“Every off-grid project doesn’t have to be as big as the Aba Power project which cost about $800m, making it the largest investment in the Southeast”.
Ejike said Geometric Power is the only electricity firm with this model in the country, explaining that though the Sahara Energy Group has both the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company and the Egbin Power Plant in Ikorodu in Lagos, the power it generates is not dedicated to a particular area but sent to the national grid.
The engineer observed that the nation “can follow the Geometric Power model by reviving and completing abandoned small hydro projects scattered all over Nigeria and from solar energy to enable communities without access to power enjoy electricity”.
To Chief Udeigbo, President General of the 22,000-strong Aba Landlords Protection and Development Association (ALPALDA): “It is good news that supplies to the Aba Ring Fence have continued unabated and supplies continue to improve.
“We still need more improvements and the earlier the improvements take place the better for all stakeholders in Aba and the environs.”
The Association of Aba Industrialists president, Sir Alex Maduakor, while commending Geometric Power for its “humungous investments in the Aba Power Project,” advised “the company to do everything within its power to ensure that Aba, as Nigeria’s foremost Indigenous manufacturing city, will have constant and regular power which will, in turn, have immense beneficial effects on the national economy.
“Manufacturers are going through challenging moments in the country and they need every support, starting with infrastructural support like constant electricity supply.”