The 181-megawatt Geometric Power plant in the Osisioma Industrial Layout of Aba, Abia State will be commissioned on Monday, 26th February, according to a statement by the company’s management.
The plant was originally scheduled for inauguaration on Saturday by President Bola Tinubu.
The new date was chosen by The Presidency in Abuja due to what insider sources described as unexpected developments.
The President will commission the 188-MW thermal plant alongside Aba Power Limited, which will take electricity from the new plant and supply to nine of the 17 local governement areas in Abia State.
Reacting to the decision to shift the long-awaited commissioning, an energy consultant in Lagos, Engr. Cliff Eneh said: “A 48-hour difference is not significant.
“We are proud of the support the Federal Government has of late been giving to the Geometric Power integrated company, the only group in Nigeria that will generate and distribute its own power; other power firms either generate or distribute but do not get involved in both”.
Described as the biggest investment in the Southeast, 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.
A former Commissioner in-charge of Markets, Market Rates and Competition at the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Patrick Umeh described the tibular poles mounted by Geometric Power in Aba and the environs as “incomparable in Africa.
Umeh, who was an former executive with the Los Angeles Water and Light in the United States, further said: “Only in cities like Tokyo and San Francisco in California you have facilities of this quality and sizes.
“Much as they are very tall, as all of us can see, the tubular poles here are actually about 10 metres deep.
“In other words, in the unlikely event of a natural disaster like earthquake in Aba or the environs, Aba Power and the Geometric Group will still be able to supply electricity to its numerous customers”.
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.
President General of the Aba Landlords Protection and Development Association (ALPANDA), Chief Alphonsus Udeigbo said: “Electricity was rarely available in Aba. And when it was available it was so poor that it couldn’t power your household appliances, let alone industrial machines”.
According to the President of the Association of Aba Industrialists, Sir Alexander Maduakor, the inauguration of the Geometric Power next Monday “will mark a new dawn in the country, not just in Aba or Abia State”.
