NEXT LEVEL IN POWER SUPPLY: FG APPROVES ASO ROCK TO BECOME ELIGIBLE CUSTOMER, GIVES FRANCHISE TO FIVE HYDRO DAMS
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Ife Adewole
The Federal Executive Council, FEC in alignment with the Next Level Agenda of the Muhammadu Buhari Administration to achieve more progress in electricity supply and distribution in the country has approved Aso Rock to become an eligible customer, and gave franchise of five hydro dams.
The Special Adviser on Communications, Hakeem Bello, to the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN, in a press release made available to journalists said, it became necessary for Aso Villa to benefit from the Federal Government’s Eligible Customer policy because it is the official residence of the president. Adding that, approval of a Distribution Expansion Programme to off-take part of the stranded 2,000MW has been dedicated to provide power to the Villa.
Bello explained that, the Eligible Customer Regulation, which was issued by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in mid-2017, permits electricity customers to buy power directly from the generation companies in line with the provisions of Section 27 of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act 2005 whereby Eligible Customers are permitted to buy power from a licensee other than electricity distribution companies.
The press release stated that the approval was made on Wednesday, March 27, 2019 in Abuja during the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, and that it came as a response to a memorandum submitted earlier by the ministry to seek Council approval to include the Villa in the Distribution Expansion Programme earlier approved by the Council to enable 2,000MW of currently unutilised generation capacity to be distributed to targeted metered customers.
He said, the project will be executed by Messrs Dextron Engineering Limited, has a completion period of six months under the Distribution Expansion Programme.
An arrangement has also been put in place such that a GenCo, North-South Power Company Limited, will procure the dedicated supply to the Villa from the National Grid while the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) has indicated interest to ensure success of the project.
Bello added that the final payment for the completion of the Afam 240MW Power Plant in Rivers State, the construction of Dedicated Solar Power System for the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing Headquarters in Mabushi and the concession of five Hydro Dams to facilitate electricity supply to Rural and Agrarian communities across the country were all approved at the meeting.
He explained that the approval of the final payment for the completion of the Afam 240 MW Power Plant was also sequel to a memorandum by the Ministry seeking Council’s approval for the award of contract for additional works at the 132KV Switchyard for the evacuation of power from the 240 MW Afam Three Fast Power Project following the observation that the graveling of the switchyard and the outside cable trenches with concrete enforcement and slab, earlier excluded from the scope of work by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), were necessary for safety and operation of the sub-station.
The project is to be executed by Messrs Power System and Automation Solutions Limited.
Bello said the approval by the Federal Government to franchised five Hydro Dams to facilitate electricity supply to Rural and Agrarian communities in the country was sequel to the recommendation of the Ministry and its Water Resources counterpart that Six hydro power resources be concession to private sector investors to increase the nation’s power supply by a total of 16.49MW to cater for the power needs of their immediate and essentially rural communities.
The five small and Medium Hydro Power Plants to be franchised include the 6 MW Ikere Gorge Dam in Ekiti State to be handled by Messrs Power Control and Appliances Limited, the 2 MW Omi-Kampe Dam in Kogi State, to be done by Messrs Quaint Power & Infrastructure Nigeria Limited, the 300 KW Zobe Dam and 4 MW Jibiya Dam in Katsina State to be concessioned to Messrs Pan-African Global Infrastructure and the 3 MW Bakolori Dam in Zamfara State to be concessioned also to Messrs Pan-African Global Infrastructure.
He noted that in the memorandum seeking approval of the FEC, the Ministry relied on the Electric Power Sector Reform Act of 2005 saying the aim was to increase renewable and clean electricity supply for the benefit of Nigerians.
The Ministry has already concluded negotiations with the concessionaires and letters of notification have been issued to them accordingly “in order to facilitate necessary action for early delivery of the project in compliance with regulatory procedures”.
The memorandum added that the emphasis was to optimize the utilization of renewable energy in view of the availability of abundant solar energy in the environment, listing the blocks to be affected by the project to include the four blocks/complexes each comprising four floors with a total of 894 offices.
The comprehensive solar power project, to be executed by Messrs EM-ONE Energy Solution, involves the Design and installation of Solar Power PV Plus Microgrid System and Energy Retrofitting to provide uninterrupted power supply to the Ministry.
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