Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) has announced that the Maiduguri Emergency Power Plant (MEPP) project is a significant step towards the company's goal of generating 50 MW more electricity for the national grid.
This was announced by Malam Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of NNPCL, on Thursday during the commissioning of President Muhammadu Buhari's 50-megawatt Maiduguri Emergency Power Plant project in Borno.
President Buhari ordered the NNPC Ltd. to restore power to Maiduguri and its surroundings in April 2021 as a result of the tragic insurgent attacks that resulted in the destruction of three towers of electricity power lines in Maiduguri.
According to Kyari, a 32 MW gas-fired power plant was developed and constructed on the president's orders in an unheard-of 16 months, was successfully tested, and had been given the president's seal of approval.
He asserted that a new age of NNPCL commercial energy for both on- and off-grid capital markets will begin with the president activating the emergency power plant.
The Maiduguri emergency power project, the first of its kind in the whole Northeast, will allegedly soon be scaled up to 50MW, according to him.
According to the GCEO, the Ministry of Power's efforts restored Maiduguri's historic 330KV line and provided a second redundant 33KV line from Damaturu to Maiduguri.
“The combined effect of the Maiduguri Emergency Power Plant and the replacement of the transmission lines makes Maiduguri the most sufficiently capital city in Nigeria.
“Obviously, it is a new power hub in the region, we may very soon see power exports to neighbouring countries from Maiduguri.
“As a commercial enterprise, NNPC sees this project as an opportunity to monitise our abundance natural resource by finding access to energy to support economic growth, industrialisation and job creation,” he said.
According to him, Maiduguri has served as the Northeast's commercial hub for more than a century.
Due to its favourable demographics and proximity to subregional markets like the Republic of Niger, Chad, Central Afrique Republic, Sudan, and Mali, among others, he continued that it constituted a sizable market.
He said that despite these enormous opportunities, energy poverty had persisted in preventing the business communities in Maiduguri and the surrounding area from broadening their market horizons and realising their full potential.
The initiative, according to the GCEO, improved the investment climate and offered a chance to advance the Federal Government's domestic petrol utilisation mission while assisting the power sector, the government of Borno, and stakeholders in achieving sustainable energy supply.
The power plant, he claimed, was fitted with a natural gas energy supply system in order to assure sustainable operations.
The Okpai phase one plants, Afam two and Afam six, have a combined installed capacity of over 1,000 MW, and NNPCL and its partners are now supplying 800 MW to the national grid from these facilities.
He said, "NNPCL welcomes the cooperation of the pertinent stakeholders and the Borno state government in attaining this milestone."
0 Comment(s)