Uche Cecil Izuora
Geometric Power, has taken a major step aimed at providing consistent power supply in its area of franchise in Abia State.
This follows the flag off of the construction of a special line to industries along the Port Harcourt Expressway in its ring-fenced area (REA) comprising nine of the 17 local government areas (LGAs) in Abia State.
Valued at N1.8 billion, the project is scheduled to be completed within three months, according to the chairman of the company, Professor Bart Nnaji, a former Minister of Power who flagged off the construction in the Umuarakpa community, Osisioma LGA of Abia State.
“The completion of the dedicated Double-circuit 33KV commercial line to industrial clusters in this zone will mean not just 24-hour power supply to the industries here but also high-quality power availability that can carry big machines and equipment”, Professor Nnaji declared.
“This line will radiate electricity directly from the 188-megawatt Geometric Power Plant in the Osisioma Industrial Layout in the heart of Aba City to the industrial clusters in Ukwa which shares boundary with the Rivers State”.
The big organizations in the area include Oilserv, Nigeria’s biggest indigenous oil and gas pipeline construction and servicing firm which is handling the $2.8 billion Ajaokuta-Kano-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipeline that will enter the Niger Republic and end up in Algeria or Morocco where it will supply natural gas to Europe.
Others include the Nigerian-British University and the Blue World Pharmaceutical, Foods and Cosmetics Company, which plans to start manufacturing drugs in accordance with World Health Organization (WHO) specifications, thus enabling Nigeria to start exporting pharmaceutical products on an industrial scale like India.
Though there has been electricity supply to the Ukwa arae for years, stated the Blue World Pharmaceutical, Foods and Cosmetic Company chairman, Lawrence Umeh-Udeh, “it has been shared with the host community, making supplies irregular and not of international standards, a problem that will now be resolved in the next 90 days as the new line is specifically for industries which are growing rapidly in the Aba Ring-fence Area as a result of growing constant power supply since last December 17”.
Supporting the statement by Power Minister Adelabayo Adelabu that 60 per cent of Nigerian manufacturers rely on electricity self-generation owing to poor supplies from electricity distribution companies (DisCos), Aba Power Managing Director Ugo Opiegbe disclosed at the flagoff ceremony that big multinational corporations like PZ are “returning to our own DisCo, which is Nigeria’s newest DisCo and the country’s 12th because of constant, reliable and affordable supplies since the resolution of the gas supply challenge last December”.
He also revealed that Neimeth Pharmaceuticals based in Ikeja, Lagos, is building a manufacturing plant in Aba due to improved electricity, “to say nothing about the forthcoming Enyimba Economic City that will change the landscape of the Southeast and South-South because of power availability”.
Opiegbe, a lawyer, disclosed that Geometric Power, Aba Power’s parent firm, is “constructing three dedicated commercial lines for industries in the Owerrinta, Ogbor Hill and Factory Road industrial clusters, complete with substations.
“They will be commissioned in less than 90 days, enhancing our power output by as much as 60MW, which is more than half of what the Aba Ring-fenced Area currently consumes”.
He expressed optimism that big multinationals like the Nigerian Breweries plc, with a manufacturing facility in the Factory Road Industrial Layout, “will benefit from the ongoing electric power revolution in Abia State”.
The 42-kilometre New Ukwa Line costing N1.8bn is financed by the Divine Point Group under a vendor-financed option which Tony Alozie, Geometric Power’s Chief Finance Officer, a former executive with Halliburton of the United States, described as a “mark of stupendous stakeholder confidence in the Geometric Power Group