Insecurity hampering 700MW Zungeru Power Plant completion – FG

• Says foreign workers still being held by kidnappers

• Blames erratic power supply on low water level in hydro dams

By Egena Sunday Ode

The Federal Government on Thursday said plans to complete the 700 megawatts Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Station project has continued to suffer set backs, due to the prevailing insecurity in the North west.

The development, it said, had forced workers out of the construction area.

It, however, assured that the authorities were working hard to ensure the project is delivered as soon as possible.

Recall that December, 2021 was set as target for the completion and commissioning of the project, envisioned to be the second-largest hydroelectric power station in the country, after the 760 megawatts (1,020,000 hp), Kainji hydroelectric project.

But the project which is said to be currently at 90% status has continued to suffer set backs following an attack on 4th January, 2022, where two Chinese nationals working at the site where kidnapped, after the security guards were killed.

Addressing newsmen at the weekly Media briefing anchored by the Presidential Media team, at the State House, Abuja, Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, noted that work on the project has “slowed down at the site, while efforts are on to rescue the Chinese workers”

The Zungeru power project which would have contributed about 700 megawatts of electricity to the national grid, had remained comatose as the contractors have deserted the area following fear of being attacked.

On the current epileptic power supply across the country, Aliyu blamed the development on “reduction in water levels which is usually experienced at this time of the year.”

The Minister, however, assured that the federal government was working to resolve the short term load-shedding challenges.

On metering policy of the government, he noted that “meters are provided free,” adding, “We have said this times without numbers that these meters are free. They are instruments for generating money, how can we be selling meter.”

He said the government has secured and is currently executing up to $4 billion in investments in the Grid so as to ensure that more power is delivered for the citizens’ consumption.

On the details of electricity supply, the Minister said the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry was delivering grid, captive, as well as embedded power to the tune of almost 8,000MW daily, as against the speculated 4,000MW.

The Minister noted that the nation has an installed capacity of almost 18,000MW and not 13,000MW contrary to reports  erroneously bandied by the public.

“I’d like you also to take away that we deliver 8,000MW of electricity daily through a combination of Grid, Embedded and Industrial Captive supply of Electricity, not 4,000MW as is frequently reported, much of this capacity added during the life of this administration.

“These are not my figures; this was an industry study conducted by KPMG recently” he said.

He further disclosed that much of the improvement to the  8,000MW occurred under the current administration, through positive industrial policies driving captive industrial power investment and improved grid stability, although we continue and must continue to work to improve the performance of the Grid.

He disclosed that these come from 28 Grid Power plants with Installed Capacity of 13,000MW and Operational Daily Capacities of around 5,000MW, with the plants located at Egbin, Ughelli, Geregu, Kainji.

“266 Captive Power plants (mainly industrial > 1MW) with Installed Capacities of 4,000MW and Daily Operational Capacities of around 2,500MW. These include the Dangote Cement Capacities in Obajana Ibese (400MW), and NLNG’s Bonny Island Power Plant (240MW) amongst others.

“These are never captured in the statistics but are part of the NESI and form our industrial load for jobs. In the future many of these plants will integrate to the grid, in fact some of them supply power to communities they occupy;

“16 Embedded Power Plants with 549MW of Installed Capacities and 190MW of Daily Operational Capacity

“From the KPMG rebasing analysis above it is clear that the NESI needs to make better utilization of particularly the Grid based Power Plants. The only way this can happen is through the improvement of the Grid. The Federal Government has many key grid initiatives with more than N125.2 billion budgeted between 2015 to 2021 for TCN and Development.

The Minister assured that  government was working on more Gas supply contracts for the Power sector backed by improved liquidity, which will have stiff financial penalties for underperformance.

Providing further details on the Siemens Presidential Power Initiative (PPI), the Minister noted that “government will be bringing an additional $2.0 billion or more to the Transmission Grid.

He disclosed that contracts have been awarded for the construction of 10 transformers and 10 mobile power substations through Siemens which will be delivered soon.

“We are working tirelessly to ensure that all of these investments translate to incremental delivered power.

“There are 135 ongoing projects for transmission lines, substations and other associated grid infrastructure. TCN has completed 30 key Substation Projects and 12 important Transmission Lines

He listed other efforts to boost power to include increase energy mix to improve energy security.

“We will complete the Zungeru Hydro plant, the Katsina Wind plant, Kashimbila Hydro as well as ensure the challenges with Gurara are permanently resolved (partnering with the Ministry of Water). We are also working to resolve issues that have prevented large On-grid Solar from taking off in Nigeria.

“We are re-tooling the System Operator for improved dispatch optimization based on technologies and improved maintenance schedule alignments across generators.

“We are on the path to resolving the financial challenges in the sector and we will continue to provide clear regulation to keep participants such as DISCOs, GENCOs and even TCN in line to deliver for Nigerians.”