Weak power infrastructure hitting Akwa-Ibom’s ‘Power for All’ campaign—Inyang
The Board Chairman, Ibom Power Company, Akwa Ibom State and the immediate-past Commissioner for Special Duties and former Senior Special Adviser (SSA) to ex-Governor Godswill Akpabio on Technical Matters, Engr. Etido Inyang has given insights on the efforts of the state government in driving ‘Power for All’ campaign.
In an interview, he agreed that even though the state generates more than it can consume, infrastructural decay is shortchanging the efforts of the state in electricity provision.
He said Ibom Power is producing more than enough for the state, but the needed infrastructure to evacuate power remains a suspect.
“I can show you from my phone whatever is supplied in a day. I have a stream of what is sent out, when we are down, it shows that we are down with power and when it is put on the grid, it goes anywhere. So, what we are doing now is to string or retain what we need to retain here.
“You could imagine the day we commissioned the substation at Afahaube, it was reported by TCN that what they had running in that station was over 100 megawatts, but what was taken by PHEDC was about 20+ megawatts, then PHEDC will complain that people are not paying. The infrastructure to where they are sending it to is not taking it, so it becomes a problem.
“So, you see that the state government is doing a lot to take power to the people and promised to ensure 20 hours of power a day before going to 24 hours, but for the infrastructure.
“The Office of the Special Adviser on Power is taking statistics of those areas. People can still come up now and say we are not enjoying power. But, when we get through ‘Power for All’, all the infrastructures and substations will be provided at different areas and transformers provided at different areas and lines. That is when we will say the governor has achieved this vision.
On when the state will expect that, Inyang averred that “We are still working on it and the governor’s vision is that it will be sometime in 2019, but it is going to be in phases. There are people in Uyo metropolis that do not have power due to lack or bad transformers”.
“So, we are looking at Uyo, Ikot Abasi, Eket, Ikot Ekpene, Onna and Oron, because of industries situated there which you must take power to, around six major cities will be done first then we move into other local governments, but within a year of its commencement we will complete the others.
On when the state is commencing the second phase of Ibom Power, the chairman revealed that “We are still working on the second phase, but this is an aspect. You know that you cannot do without the FG. We have a gap of 500MW for anybody who wants to bring in power, number one, we have to look at the feasibility. Once you have the 500MW, you will be able to pump out. There is a project that is coming to Ibom Power to evacuate power, that line will be able to evacuate 1200MW.
“So, if you take out 500MW, we are left with 700MW and 500MW will be consumed by QIPP, the new power station. So, we still have an allowance of 200MW for any other company that is coming in. So, there is provision for evacuation for the second phase.
“The issue now is Federal Government having issues with provision of sovereign guarantee that backs up the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). So, for anybody that is coming in with 500mw of power, you have a minimum of $500million to invest by the rule of ton, it could be $1million per megawatt.
