President Bola Tinubu on Friday laid the foundation of the 350MW phase one of the 7,350MW Gwagwalada Independent Power Plant (GIPP) insisting that it must be completed within the three years contract duration.
Speaking at the plant ground breaking ceremony in Gwagwalada, Abuja, he warned that “A three-year project must be three years. Nigerians are waiting and anxious for all the promises made and the promises must be kept.”
According to him, all the distribution bottlenecks will be removed from the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) because the country cannot become a productive and industrial country unless it can generate, transmit and distribute electricity.
The GIPP has a projected gross revenues within the first ten years is expected to be around USD 700 and 800 million per year.
The Project will also benefit from improvements to the national transmission system, under FGN’s long-term plan for transmission upgrade.
In his remarks, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Group Chief Executive Officer, Malam Mele Kyari, described the event as demonstration of your commitment and support to improve the nation’s power generation capacity to spur economic growth for the country.
He noted that Nigeria is endowed with significant natural gas resources of over 209TCF of proven gas reserves, and potential reserve of over 600TCF.
According to him, as a commercial enterprise, NNPC sees this project as an opportunity to monetize its abundant natural gas resources, by expanding access to Energy to support economic growth, industrialization, and job creation across the country.
He said to achieve this national aspiration, NNPC has invested four heavily in domestic gas footprint expansion projects through the delivery of the Trans-Nigeria Pipeline Project (TNGP) which includes the Escravos to Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS & ELPS Il), the Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben (0B3) gas pipeline and the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline.
According to him, the GIPP is a giant step towards achieving NNPC’s Cas & Power mandate to add 5GW into the National Power generation by 2024.
Kyari said currently NNPC and partners are delivering about 800MW to the national grid from Afam VI and Okpai Phase 1 thermal power plants with combined installed capacity of 1,100MW.
Continuing, he noted that “We have also completed Okpai Phase 2 project that will add up to 320MW of power to the national grid and progressing with other power plant projects across the country including those along the AKK pipeline route.
“The Gwagwalada IPP is among the NNPC flagship power projects along the AKK corridor. This is part of the 3,600MW cumulative power capacity which includes Kaduna IPP (900MW) and Kano IPP (1,350MW).
“The project will be delivered in collaboration with General Electric (CE) as the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and China Machinery and Engineering Corporation (CMEC) as the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Contractor.”
He recalled that NNPCL recently commissioned the 50MW Maiduguri Emergency Power plant (MEPP), stressing that the firm will continue to replicate similar viable business opportunities across the Nation to ensure energy affordability.