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Power: Increasing supply through $6.06m World Bank-funded substation

By BusinessNews Staff on November 4, 2013

In 2007, the Federal Government received a credit of $172million from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank to facilitate the National Energy Development Project. Part of the proceeds of this credit was used to finance the construction of two electricity substations in two of Abuja suburbs, Kubwa and Karu.

According to the World Bank it chose both areas because of gross lack of electricity supply to the residents that could at times go on for days without end. The Kubwa substation was completed and commissioned in 2010 while the Karu project which was eventually started in 2008 was completed mid 2012.

For many years, the people of Karu, Nyanya, Jikwoyi, Kurudu and Orozo all in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and for the residents of Mararaba, Ado and Masaka all in the neighbouring Nasarawa State had lived with little public supply of electricity due mainly to poor infrastructure deployed by the state owned monopoly, Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). But with the completion and commissioning of the 2x60MVA, 132/33kv substation built at the cost of $6.06million, the areas are poised to enjoy better supply of electricity.

Speaking at the lavish ceremony attendant by local chiefs and residents, Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo noted that the benefits of government’s effort to improve electricity to Nigerians has began with President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan commissioning of the 434mw Geregu 2 Power Station in Kogi State, and the commissioning of Omotosho 2 Power Plant with a 500mwcapacity.

These developments, he stated has kick-started the releasing of nearly 5,000MW of electricity into the national grid within the next few months, from the ten completed NIPP plants, under the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Ltd.

“And this is only part of the power generation plans under the reform programme”, he stressed.

While describing the Karu substation as “life changing, important and significant in more ways than one”, he pointed out that “for the large and highly industrious population of Karu, Mararaba and environs, the epileptic nature of power supply became a familiar but tortuous experience over the years. But change has come.

“With today’s commissioning, the transmission inadequacy in Karu area has been squarely addressed, more so with the upgrading of the over-stretched 33KV transmission line all the way from Apo transmission substation to the current 132KV line at the door step to reduce technical losses. Also, the hitherto inadequate 30MVA power transformer capacity has now been upgraded to 120MVA to accommodate the higher load demand forecast in Vision 20:2020.

“This project will certainly act as a catalyst for the development of small and medium scale businesses, promoting industrial growth in these areas, and subsequently impacting positively on the well-being and overall living standards of individual families”.

Nebo noted further that the projects were worth celebrating as “electricity consumers in Karu, Mararaba, Nyanya, Masaka, Jikwoi, Karshi and neighbouring parts of Nasarawa State now enjoy about 15 to 18 hours quality supply of electricity daily, as against the previously unpredictable supply patterns”.

He used the occasion to announce government’s plan to “stimulate development of renewable and alternative energy for rural electrification and farm clusters by exploring these energy sources for viability in producing electricity. For each rural community, the Ministry of Power will implement micro-off grid wind or solar powered lighting systems to light up homes, community common areas or centres and major inlet/outlet roadways into communities. This scheme will provide access to electricity to the rural areas with distributed or low capacity, few kilowatts, solar or wind-powered energy-efficient lighting systems in two phases, by the end of 2014”.

He insisted that “concrete results are beginning to manifest from the tireless work of all stakeholders in the electricity industry, especially in the past two years of the Jonathan administration. We must give Mr. President the credit for making power a cardinal point of his transformation agenda, and for launching and proactively driving the Power Sector Reform Roadmap.

“Evidence that the reforms are working is also seen in the success story of the ambitious power sector privatisation exercise, the largest and most transparent so far in Africa, the sustenance of generation and distribution infrastructure ahead of privatization, even in the face of zero budget provision in the current year, and the peaceful resolution of labour issues, among other things.

“Acutely aware of the need to brace up to evacuate the expected huge volume of power to be generated in the coming weeks and months, we have since activated the contract with Manitoba of Canada, for the management of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), and we are also consciously and consistently strengthening transmission infrastructure across the country”.

Speaking Earlier, Managing Director of TCN, Don Priestman whose company will manage the substation noted that the event was one they all looked forward to due to the strategic role of the substation towards stabilizing the power supply situation in the FCT.

According to him, “the Karu Transmission substation project is one of many projects that have been successfully executed by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, in its determination to ensure implementation of the power sector reform agenda which is geared towards evolving an efficient and robust national grid”.

He added that the completion of “this substation has resulted in more stable power supply to electricity consumers in FCT and parts of Nasarawa State” and urging

“every citizen of this great country to join hands with us in protecting all electricity installations from the activities of vandals, including miners, who evacuate minerals, laterite and sand around the foundation of power transmission towers causing some of them to collapse. Protecting these key strategic installations is a part our collective responsibility as Nigerians”.

Also speaking, General Manager, Project Management Unit, Joseph Ciroma, who gave the technical details of the project, said it was awarded in September 2007 to the Joint Venture of Shreem-Jyoti and MBH Power Engineering consortium for $6.066m.

“The scope of the contract was to design, manufacture, delivery, installation and commissioning of 2x60MVA, 132/33kv transformer substation with all associated equipment including the provision of six outgoing 33kv feeders and the re-conducting of 10km of Apo-Karu 132kv transmission line with higher current carrying capacity conductor to allow the flow of more power to this substation for the benefit of communities in the area.

“The choice of Karu for the substation, was a World Bank initiative in conjunction with Abuja Distribution Company and the Transmission Company of Nigeria to identify the worst scenario within the satellite towns in Abuja that had serious electricity supply challenge but with the future economic potentials in terms of small and medium scale businesses that could transform the livelihood of the people as a result of the provision of adequate, qualitative and reliable power supply.

“The benefits and impact of this project include upgrading of the source of supply from 33kv to 132kv, provision of additional 120MVA transformer capacity to the transmission grid; grid stability and reliability of power supply; better voltage profile to the customer premises; customer satisfaction as a result of reduction in down time on power interruptions; and improvement in revenue bas e to the distribution company.

“Until the construction of the substation the distribution company generated on N30m monthly in revenues from customers but now revenue has increased to N120m monthly”.

He noted that electricity customers in areas covered by the substation would now enjoy“at least 15-18 hours of quality electricity supply as against the poor and epileptic power supply for less than four hours or total black out for days that was in the achievement of the Project Development Objectives (PDO) of improving the livelihood of the people in these areas”.

On his part, Task Team Leader, World Bank, Erik Fernstrom said the bank’s intervention in electricity distribution was necessitated by the need to improve electricity supply to areas outside Abuja city that have suffered epileptic supply due to poor infrastructure.

He expressed the readiness of the bank to replicate the substation across the country to bridge electricity gaps, noting that “this is the blue print of how we want the sector to look like, a sector that meets the needs of the people. In doing this, we also want to encourage small businesses which ultimately boost the income of local people”.

He thanked the local communities for supporting the project and urged to protect the facility to ensure that there are minimal power interruptions.

One of the residents, Peter Mutashi told our reporter that while power in the area has improved greatly it was below the 18 hours per day mentioned by government officials.

According to him, “In the past 3-4 months, electricity supply has improved especially that the low current it uses to bring has disappeared. But is not up to 18 hours, maybe 10 hours. There are still times where we don’t have supply for a whole day. But is better now than it was before the substation was built”.

Another resident Eche Nwalu who concurred with Mutashi position however pointed out that the challenge would be the proper maintenance of the substation.

“You know how government things are especially since the station is not among the installations being privatized, we hope that they have a plan to maintain the standard they have started with”, he added.

[Daily Independent]

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