Honeywell to Invest $1 billion in Power Projects
The Honeywell Group, a Nigerian conglomerate with interests in manufacturing, energy, infrastructure, real estate, services and other sectors of the economy has concluded plans to invest $1 billion in power generation and transmission projects across the country.
Honeywell CEO, Chris Bale, said the first phase of the project would be a 150 Megawatts power plant in Ogun State. He said the plant is designed to meet the power needs of the South West and the company had already secured approval from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). The plant is to be completed by December 2014.
He said: “Right now the group is approaching the next stage of development which is getting the necessary inputs together. We are discussing with Gas Aggregator Company of Nigeria. We have also gotten a Gas Purchase Order (GPO ), very soon negotiation would commence with the gas suppliers. Also, we are holding discussions with Transmission Company of Nigeria for a transmission line to evacuate the power that is going to be accruing from the Akute plant.”
The CEO also spoke on its bid for some power assets soon to be privatized by the Federal Government.
“Our strategy is not to depend on disco, clearly we would like to succeed in the bid process, but if we are not successful we still have these power generation projects to deal with. We see the potential for the housing Project in Ogun state to be 500 megawatts, we are looking at 100mw megawatts in Bayelsa State, we are looking at another 500mw plant closer home and this would be quiet the size of an investment portfolio.”
He added, “He said: “The company has a long standing involvement in the Nigerian power sector and also has good relationship with investors, and for the growth of the power sector, so we see this as an opportunity to deploy Honeywell group’s resources and bring the much needed investment in the sector from outside the country”.