Tinubu To Commission Geometric Power Plant Tomorrow

Minister of Power, Mr. Adebayo Adelabu, has said that the Federal Government has invested so much money in the energy sector, noting that it is a pity that Nigerians are still battling with issues of electricity.

 
The minister’s lamentation came ahead of tomorrow’s commissioning of the Geometric Power (GP) Plant at Osisioma, Aba in Abia State, by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.  
 
He spoke in Benin City, Edo State, during a tour of Ihovbo Power Plants in the state at the weekend. He lamented that the huge investment in the power sector by the Federal Government was being under utilised.
 
Adelabu, however, gave assurances that the problems bedeviling the sector would soon be a thing of the past. He said: “Contrary to the general belief, Nigeria has invested so much in power generating plants and these plants are state-of-the-art plants. They are well maintained; they are in very good condition and they are in a condition that can give us the kind of power generation that we need in this country, except that there are a lot of capacity distortions.

“I will take them one after the other. I got to the Ihovbo plant, which belongs to the Federal Government under the Niger Delta Power Holding Company. It is a plant with four gas plants in very good condition, with a capacity of about 125 megawatts each, which is a total of 500 megawatts.

 
“They are well maintained plants and the running hours of each of these, they are all below 30,000, which means that, effectively, they have not been run more than three years even though they have been installed almost eight or 10 years ago. They are as good as new turbines. Surprisingly, only one turbine is operational today, generating about 100 megawatts of power as against the installed capacity of 500.
 
“That is just 20 per cent capacity utilisation and which is a gross lack of optimisation of our investment as a country. If we have put so much into establishing these power plants, it should be able to give us the kind of power that we require.”   He explained that the militating factor in the power supply chain is gas supply, assuring that the government was working hard to address the challenge.
 
Speaking ahead of the commissioning, the Founder and Chairman of Geometric Power Project, Prof. Barth Nnaji, said the project was initiated to provide reliable electricity to the designated 4000 square kilometer Aba area, comprising nine of the 17 local councils of the state.
 
Nnaji spoke yesterday while addressing a press conference at the plant, saying the project, which has taken 20 years after it was licenced in 2004 to produce 188 megawatts of electricity, has gulped almost 800 million dollars. He stated that the project is by far the largest investment in the Southeast geopolitical zone of the country.
 
He explained that GP is Nigeria’s only integrated power project that has its own embedded power plant, which enables it to generate and distribute its power, adding that other electricity companies either generate or distribute electricity.  
 
He disclosed that the choice of Aba for the location of the project was informed by the fact that it hosts huge manufacturing and commercial activities which cannot thrive without reliable and sustainable power supply.
 
According to Nnaji, Geometric Power would be guided by the statutorily regulated tariff structure when it begins operation. The former Minister of Power, who spoke in the presence of the Abia State Commissioner for Power and Public Utilities, Ikechukwu Monday, urged members of the public to fight against vandalism of GP installation/facilities to ensure sustained power supply in the area.