By Adaobi Rhema Oguejiofor
The Federal Government has said that the facilities required to increase the country’s electricity output by about 1,600 megawatts (MW) under phase one of the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) have been delivered and deployed.
Nigeria has been partnering with Siemens Energy, a German energy firm, to install power transformers, mobile stations and other facilities, with the aim of growing Nigeria’s grid power generation from 5,000 MW to 25,000MW.
The Federal Government of Nigeria Power Company (FGNPC), a special purpose vehicle that was established to help secure financing, coordinate stakeholders, and enter contractual arrangements in order to deliver PPI projects, said that the first phase of the project had already reached an advanced stage.
FGNPC also stated that it had received the delivery of about 80 percent of the equipment needed for the pilot projects, which were being deployed to critical sites across Nigeria in order to improve the country’s power transmission capacity.
Some of the sites it listed include Apo, Ajah, Okene, Nike Lake, Kwanar Dangora, Maryland, Omouaran, Ojo, Amukpe, Ihovbor, Potiskum, and Birnin Kebbi, among others.
The Managing Director of FGNPC, Kenny Anuwe, explained that the first phase of the PPI project would add about 2,000MW of power to the national grid.
According to him, by installing 80 percent of the facilities that are required to generate the said quantum of electricity, it implies that the government has provided the equipment needed to grow power generation by about 1,600MW.
He expressed that the successful implementation of projects under the first Phase will lead to the delivery of an additional 2,000MW, as well as two million new connections to the national grid, in addition to the training of over 5,000 engineers that will operate the system network and provide an improved electricity access to millions of Nigerians.
Anuwe stressed that the Nigeria-Siemens PPI project for Phase One was in progress and had already recorded notable successes.
He also added that the pilot project was a quick-win intervention strategy.
The FGNPC Boss maintained that the pilot phase would unlock the immediate limitations in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) through the installment of 10 power transformers and 10 mobile substations across the country.
In his own words, “the Nigeria-Siemens PPI initiative will be delivered in three phases; with phase one focusing on ‘quick win’ measures to increase the end-to-end operational capacity to 7,000MW from the current capacity of about 5,000MW.
Phase two targets expanding the capacity of the transmission and distribution systems to enable the evacuation of up to 11,000 MW of electricity to consumers, while phase three targets expanding the power grid to 25,000MW capacity, through further expansion of generation, transmission, and distribution systems.”
He further stated that the Federal Government and Siemens Energy had remained determined to fulfill their commitments to the project, which was intended to resolve the capacity deficiencies in metering infrastructure, transmission and distribution end-to-end system constraints, power systems, and network development studies, as well as securing financing for the entire project implementation.