NPA’s seizure of 156m euros equipment stalls 245MW power plant

OFFICIALS of the Ministry of Power have told the Senate Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy, headed by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe that vital equipment meant for the completion of the 245 Megawatts Kaduna Power Plant are rotting away in Onne Port, Rivers State, since 2015.

The Senate Committee, which was on tour of the power installations in Kaduna, was also informed that the 156 million euros (about N54 billion) power plant which should have been completed since 2014 had remained in limbo due to repeated tango with port authorities among other issues.

Director of Distribution at the Ministry of Power, Priscilla Sapke, who briefed the Senate Committee during the tour of the power station, said repeated appeals to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and other agencies in Onne, Rivers State, had fallen on deaf ears as the port had completely seized 19 containers said to contain accessories critical to the installation of the Kaduna Power Plant.

Sapke said several containers were initially seized by the port between 2012 and 2014, but that a number of the containers were released to General Electric and Rockson Engineering, contractors to the plant on payment of 50 per cent of an agreed demurrage while 19 others had been lying at the Onne Port since 2015.

She did not give details of the exact amount paid by the companies.

She said: “The directive is that they (the port) should release government’s goods and talk later about commercial issues but they refused.”

As a result of that refusal, the project, meant to last 24 months, now has no definite date of completion.

The Dual Fired LPFO/Gas 215 MW Kaduna Power Plant was initiated in 2009 and initially meant to be completed in 2011, but the shift in the original location at Kakuri in Kaduna metropolis to the current location at Kudeda was said to have necessitated the change in the completion date.

Officials of General Electric and Rockson Engineering, who were also on hand, told the Senate committee that the project could come on stream in November if the seized equipment were released.

“Besides the 215 megawatts plant, the Gurara Dam is also expected to supply 30 megawatts to the power plant to take its capacity to 245 megawatts.

Senator Abaribe, who led 10 other senators on the tour, said the Senate was disappointed that the completion date of the power installation remained uncertain years after it was initiated.

He said: “The committee is not very pleased at the cost overrun and the time overrun. This is a project that should have been completed years back, but we are not even sure when it will be completed because some of these also infringe on cost components and our worry is for the Nigerian public who are going to pay for this.

“We are not pleased that if we are not careful we may end up getting a white elephant from this. Whatever this committee needs to do to get this project completed, we are ready to do.

“We will be interacting with the Minister of Power and also with his counterpart in the Ministry of Water Resources, because the Gurara Dam is also part of the problem.”