I documented that visit in a piece published on this page on February 27, 2024, under the headline: “The darkness called Nigeria”. While the government plant generates 100 megawatts of its 500 megawatts capacity, the private plant generates 461 megawatts. Now, the arrangement is that for any megawatt the private plant generates which the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) cannot transmit to the National Grid, the TCN entered into a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the private plant and pays an average of $30 million every month!
By Suyi Ayodele
Anyone may want to believe that we have genuine insurmountable problems with our National Grid. I don’t share that opinion. I know, with the hindsight of a singular experience, that whatever is wrong with our National Grid is deliberate, a result of our personal greed! The National Grid collapses at will because there is a calculated attempt put in place to satisfy the greed of some Nigerians. In essence, what we are experiencing in terms of power outages occasioned by a malfunctioning National Grid is the work of profiteering vampires whose greed has remained insatiable!
In February this year, I was in the entourage of the Minister of Power, Adedayo Adelabu, to a GENCO in Ihovbor Community, Benin City. The minister’s mission to the community was to inspect the power-generating plant located in the agrarian community.
The plant, which goes by the name, Ihovbor Power Plant or Benin Power Generating Company, is owned by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC). It was set up in May 2013, as “an open cycle gas turbine power plant built to accommodate future Conversion to Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) configuration.”
The government-owned power plant, when fully operated, can generate 500 megawatts of power for evacuation (transmission) to the National Grid. The minister said that the plant “is a brand new one.” Unfortunately, new as the Ihovbor Power Plant is, it transmits nothing to the National Grid because its turbines are perpetually shut down for its neighbouring plant owned by some individuals to work.
I documented that visit in a piece published on this page on February 27, 2024, under the headline: “The darkness called Nigeria”. While the government plant generates 100 megawatts of its 500 megawatts capacity, the private plant generates 461 megawatts. Now, the arrangement is that for any megawatt the private plant generates which the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) cannot transmit to the National Grid, the TCN entered into a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the private plant and pays an average of $30 million every month!
This is where the complication arises. The government shuts down its own power plant to allow a private plant to function and then goes ahead to pay a whopping sum of $30 million for megawatts that are generated but not transmitted. The private plant, to add insult to our national injury, runs on the facilities of the government owned plant! If you ask a multi-billionaire, I know, to describe this situation, he will simply tell you it is a case of someone helping someone!
Incidentally, the NDPHC, which owns the Ihovbor Power Plant in Benin City, has nine other such plants in Omotoso, Olorunsogo, Calabar, Geregu, Omoku, Gbaron, Sapele and Enugu. All these plants, if optimally used, will generate 4,700 megawatts of power!
The questions we should ask is: How many of such government owned plants are working? How many privately owned plants are getting $30 million PPA every month at the expense of our public plants? Who are the owners of the private plants? Who are their partners in government and out of government?
And before we think that private power generation and distribution is rocket science, I present to you the experience of the CCETC Ossiomo Power Company LTD, Benin City, which was initiated by the immediate past Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, as an Independent Power Project (IPP). It was a fierce battle before the project saw the light of the day. The Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) management fought tooth and nail to frustrate the project.
In one of the meetings between the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and the Edo State Government, Obaseki practically walked the then Managing Director of the BEDC out of the Government House. Obaseki succeeded with the Private Power Project because of his tenacity of purpose. Today, all Edo State Government offices in Benin City are connected to the Ossiomo power supply and they have good stories to tell.
The example of Ossiomo is a definition of a focused government. What Obaseki demonstrated is rugged political will and the determination to make a difference and place the people above any other consideration. The same feat was replicated in Enugu a few months ago.
Why can’t we have as many Ossiomo across the nation? Why do we rely on a National Grid that is suffering from epilepsy? The answer is very clear: GREED! The National Grid needs to collapse as many times as possible so that the fat maggots of power generating profiteers can get their monthly $30 million PPA for power generated but not transmitted.
To fix whatever problems we have with our National Grid, we need to first address and permanently fix the problem of our National Greed! What solution do I recommend? I commend the managers of our power industry to take a tutorial from the resilience of the Nigerian Tribune, our inimitable Elephant (Ajanaku), huge as a hill, even in a crouching posture! At 75, Tribune is still waxing stronger and remains resolute, keeping fidelity with the mission and vision of its founder! When we stop treating our National Grid like the proverbial Ìwòfà àdáwó jo yá (jointly owned Ìwòfà – pawn), Nigerians will begin to experience uninterrupted power supply. That is hugely doable! -Suyi Ayodele Tribune Newspaper