Aba IPP to guarantee 95% uninterrupted electricity

The Aba Integrated Power Project on Thursday said that the plant would guarantee 95 per cent uninterrupted electricity supply. The project, which has a total installed capacity of 141 megawatts of electricity, would serve over 5,000 small and medium enterprises, industries and residents in the Aba metropolis, as well as provide excess power to be distributed to other cities outside its primary area. The Technical Adviser, Geometric Power Limited – owners of the project, Mr. Okwudiri Ehilegbu, in an interview with journalists, stated that the private-sector driven project would boost the Federal Government's plan of transforming the power sector. He said, "The Aba IPP is not just part of measures to address the power challenges in this area, but it would boost the nation's power system. This is because when we distribute power to businesses in this metropolis, the power being consumed before the IPP came on board would be sent out to other areas. Hence, it would improve electricity supply in other areas. "We are aiming at guaranteeing 95 per cent uninterrupted power supply, barring all unforeseen circumstance, and the plant will feed all Aba metropolis and its environs." The Federal Government had in 2005, during the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, come up with the idea of Integrated Power Projects to address the twin issues of low electric power generation and gas flaring from oil exploration in the Niger Delta region. The idea was that the project would serve as an intervention scheme to comprehensively address the state of electricity infrastructure in Nigeria. It was planned to be a fast-track approach to improving the country's electricity power supply through the implementation of generation, transmission, distribution and gas supply projects. The Aba IPP, however, was not into gas supply, Ehilegbu said. He explained that the plant had three generating turbines and each was rated 47MW, adding that two of the units were 95 per cent complete, while one was 90 per cent ready. The plant, it was learnt, would be fired up in May and start supplying power to consumers immediately. "Though this would be done in phases, it will make industries, small businesses and other consumers appreciate the privatisation of the power sector," Ehilegbu said. Punch