NEPA to begin payment for power from Rivers turbine station
From Kelvin Ebiri (Port Harcourt)
RIVERS State government may soon begin to reap the benefits of its investment in an independent power project.
Power and Steel Minister, Liyel Imoke said at the weekend that the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) will soon begin payment for the electricity received so far from the state-owned gas turbine power station in Trans-Amadi industrial area of Port Harcourt.
Imoke, who made the disclosure during a visit to Governor Peter Odili, said that already a power purchase pact had been signed between the Federal Government and Rivers State, which ceded 70 per cent revenue accruing from the sale of electricity generated by the gas turbine station to Rivers.
Also, 30 per cent of the revenue will go to NEPA for distributing to end users.
The agreement takes retrospective effect from the time NEPA began lifting power from the Trans-Amadi station, which cost the state close to N5 billion to build.
In a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Emma Okah, the minister noted that of the three states in the country that started their independent power project, only Rivers had completed its own and was the first state to have signed a power-purchase pact with NEPA.
Imoke expressed delight and commended Rivers State government for its success in trying to exceed NEPA's target for the state through the building of the Omoku Gas Turbine Station, which on completion is expected to generate some 150 megawatts of electricity.
According to Imoke, when the Omoku project comes on stream, Rivers should be generating close to 180 megawatts, far more than what NEPA anticipated to generate for the state.
The minister, who fell short of castigating NEPA for its ineptitude to meet the power needs of the nation, noted that the technology used in the Rivers gas turbine project was alien to NEPA.
This is because it incorporated marine and underground water cabling technologies to transport electricity to inland communities in remote parts of the state, which, according to him, NEPA would not have anticipated.
"The beauty of your project is that you will reach the remote areas of your state which NEPA, in the next ten years, would not be able to reach whether it is privatised or not", he said.
The minister disclosed that the state was the first to have its power project connected to the national grid, adding that he was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the power project expected to cost the state over N12 billion on
completion.
Governor Odili lauded the minister for his confidence in the power project, which he noted had been criticised as a white elephant project.
He explained that since October, 2002 when the Trans-Amadi Station was commissioned by President
Olusegun Obasanjo, the station has been delivering electricity to NEPA for transmission.
Odili said the state would be ready for industrialisation once the Omoku Station comes on stream, describing power as key to industry and growth.
The governor said the new power station build by local engineers would generate about 150 megawatts of electricity and would soon be commissioned.
"People do not believe that Nigerians can build power stations. With this success story, we can say that there is nothing that Nigerians want that they cannot achieve", he said.
