The Chairman of Geometric Power, the parent body of Aba Power Plant (APP), Prof Barth Nnaji, has assured that the problems facing the company will soon be over.
Prof Nnaji promised that as soon as the problems were solved, the power company would begin on its mandate of providing 24-hour interrupted power supply to Aba in Abia State and its environs.
The Geometric Power chairman who made these known at the site of the power plant at Osisioma, near Aba during a chat with Journalists, said the major problem APP was having was that it has not started generating its own power and presently depended on Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) for that purpose.
He disclosed that Geometric Power signed an agreement with Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), but about two years later, the SPDC licence expired and the Federal Government could not renew it and NNPC Ltd. took over.
The former Minister of Power said with this development, his company had to start the process of a new agreement with NNPC Ltd., to supply gas from its facility at Owaza in Ukwa West to the power plant.
He informed that NNPC was presently refurbishing its facility at Owaza, and when this is completed, they will begin a 24km gas supply from Owaza to the plant where pipes had already been laid.
“We are now in the process of renewing the agreement with NNPC Ltd. They are about to start transmitting gas to us after refurbishing their gas plant at Owaza.”
Pro Nnaji stated that once NNPC Ltd. starts transmitting gas to Aba Power, the four giant power turbines would use the gas to generate electricity that would guarantee a 24-hour power supply in the area of their operation.
“The plant will be generating 141 megawatts of electricity and this will be too much for Aba and its environs, and we plan to sell the excess power to the national grid.
“We invested over $800m in the plant. Our problems are going to end very soon; and very soon, reliable power will be achieved.”
On the present epileptic power supply in the city, Nnaji blames it on the low power supply from NDPHC.
“We are buying electricity from NDPHC in the interim until we start getting gas from NNPC.
“Last year we started, we were buying electricity at N21 per kilowatt hour, but now, it has been increased to N68, while we charge our customers not more than N40 in line with NERC directive. They are billing at a rate you cannot collect. Even at that, the kilowatts allotted to us have been drastically reduced.”
Nnaji accused NDPHC of not being fair to Aba Power in terms of tariff collection.
“In September, we paid them over N300m, yet they continued pushing; they have threatened to switch us off if we don’t pay all they said we owe them.
“We are not the only DISCO owing them, there are DISCOs that owe them more than 20 times what we are owing, yet they are not being switched off.”
Nnaji said the greatest problem the company was the selling of Aba Fencing to another firm, which collected revenue till August last year.
“When we got Aba Fencing back from EEDC after years of legal battle, we had to take the turbines back to the United States of America for maintenance and re-certification and we spent $8m in doing this.
Prof Nnaji urged residents of Aba and the environs to exercise patience as the company was doing everything to provide them with 24-hour interrupted power supply.