…Elektron Energy ‘ll run Ibadan power plant for 15 years – Investor
Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has said that the entire State may not need to connect and be supplied electricity from the national grid when the 500 Megawatts target by the Oyo State Government is met, adding thag the State Government only needs support of the private investors in achieving the set target.
The governor, who stated that at present, Oyo State is being supplied with about 80MW of electricity from the national grid, noted that the recently-completed independent power project constructed by Elektron Energy Limited had shown that Oyo State and indeed every other State of the Federation, has capacity not only to generate, but also to transmit and distribute power on their own.
Speaking at the inauguration of Oyo State’s first independent power project, a 11 Megawatts Hybrid Power Plant, constructed in partnership with Elektron Energy Limited in Ibadan, held at the weekend, Governor Makinde lamented the delay in the independent power project as the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission was said to have frustrated the effort but was later achievable.
He said, “I know where we ought to be as a nation in terms of capacity to generate and distribute electricity, but we are nowhere near that place. That’s why all over the place, we have generators.
“So, when we had the groundbreaking ceremony here, it became clear to us to go from growth to a game changer for our economy to go to scale, a point where you are just using what you have to stretch the envelope.
“The groundbreaking was done on Saturday, 11th of December, 2021. This was two years before the Federal Government gave the go ahead for states to have powers to generate, transmit and distribute their own power.
“Now, as a state, we can look at our own power requirements and bridge the gap without looking towards anyone else. And this is exactly the trajectory we are on in Oyo State.
“We took advantage of the changing times and worked with the House of Assembly. In February this year, we signed the Oyo State Electricity Regulation Bill into law. So, it is in force now.
“We wasted almost a year trying to get approval from the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission for this power plant. But for the next power plant, it is now under our own control. It won’t take one month. I am saying to investors now that the coast is clear.
“So, today, we are here to commission the first phase of the IPP. I thank our partners for believing in us, because what you have done is to put in your money with the hope that you will recover it from our monthly payment. I give you the assurance that we will not default.
“With the completion of this phase, Oyo State has gone from producing electricity at the mini-grid stage to 5MW electricity with 4MW gas and 1MW of solar. You may be thinking that the 5MW is low but let us put this in perspective. Oyo State receives an average of 80MWatts from the national grid. The 5MW is roughly 7 per cent. We may be going to 500MW but, today, we have taken a step.”
Earlier, Tola Talabi, Managing Director/Co-Chief Executive Officer, Elektron Energy Limited, the financier of the power project, explained that the power project has an installed capacity of 11 Megawatts, but 5MW was inaugurated and would be ran on hybrid power generation basis.
Talabi, who lauded the State Government for partnering with the company and delivering the project to the people of Oyo State, noted that the company would operate the independent power plant for 15 years before handing it over to the Government under a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) arrangement.
