As President Bola Tinubu prepares to commission the 181-megawatt Geometric Power plant in Aba, Abia State on Monday, Turbine 3 was turned on at 3.39 am on Sunday, leading to massive rejoicing by engineers and other stakeholders.
They were joined by the Abia State Commissioner for Power and Public Utilities, Engr. Ikechukwu Monday.
The President is expected to commission the thermal plant alongside Aba Power Limited, which will take electricity from the new plant and supply to nine of the 17 Local Government Areas of the state.
Described as the biggest investment in the South East, Geometric Power has spent about $800 million on its integrated power project, which includes building a 27-kilometre natural gas pipeline from Owaza in Ukwa West Local Government Area to the Osisioma Industrial Layout in Aba.
“We have, in addition, installed 150,000 kilometres of cables and wires and installed four new power substations as well as refurbished three others inherited from the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN”, explained Managing Director of Geometric Power Limited, Ben Caven.
The Geometric Power Group was founded by a globally respected academic engineer, Prof. Bart Nnaji. He had been Nigeria’s Minister of Science and Technology and later Minister of Power.
Nnaji embarked on the integrated project after then World Bank President, James Wolfensohn; and then Nigeria’s Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala visted Aba on 17th March 2004, and discovered that the greatest challenge facing both large-scale and medioum-scale industrialists in Aba, reputed to be the centre of indigenous manufacturing in Nigeria, is epileptic power supply.
Both Wolfensohn and Okonjo-Iweala appealed to Nnaji to assist with a power plant dedicated to Aba, following the 22MW Abuja Emergency Power Plant he led a team of Nigerian engineers to build in Abuja from 2000 to 2001 that supplied uninterrupted power to critical places like the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Company, the Central Bank headquarters, the Aso Rock and the entire Central Business District of Abuja.
