Delta Commissioner for Power and Energy, Charles Emetulu, in this interview with OKUNGBOWA AIWERIE, speaks on the government’s investment in power and energy, saying it will drive its Delta beyond oil initiative
Since assumption of office three years ago, what have been your major achievements?
We have been able to extend and reinforce electricity infrastructure in many communities. We have completed about 109 projects in the last three years. The Power and Energy Ministry has done 300KV transformer installations, injector transformer were also installed. A 7.5 step-down in Abbi Community Ndokwa West and similar project at Olomoro, Isoko South and Ogume, Ndokwa West. Another 7.5 step-down is being completed at Eku,Ethiope East while another is being installed in Koko Warri North.
For Eku and Koko you will agree with me that after rehabilitating the hospital at Eku and putting modern equipment there we will require better power infrastructure. The entire Eku community had a paltry 2.5 MVA so we are upgrading by over 300%, for Koko which is to become an industrial hub. Koko has never had proper power dedication so government is doing something significant there; for starters government is building a 7.5 MVA. At Orerokpe, entire community was in darkness when I assume office the community had a broken down 2.5 MVA, but government has since doubled that now they have a 5MVA.We have done a lot of 500 and 300 KVA transformer injections into the distribution network.
The power sector before now has been under the exclusive list, and as such States precluded from investing but for Delta State power was a matter of responsibility because one cannot be hoping to build an economy devoid of power .So Delta State got involved because there was massive shortcomings from the federal level in terms of deliverables to our rural and urban areas, The State has invested about N2billion which the State government does not compensated for, either by way of tariff ,tax rebate , everything goes back to the public power provider. It was only when the deregulation began, that some State governments including ours cried out saying we had spent so much money on the power infrastructure and federal government was about to sell to private owners and thereby make money . So there was assets verification where we had a consultant go round the State and verify our claims. Delta government has been involved in distribution and generation
.Overall, we have done a lot in the power sector and we have also taken it a notch higher by getting involved renewable energy. We engaged an international energy agency to do an energy mix analysis, which included solar, wind, waste and hydro resources of the State. What that means is that we are ready in case investors come we will have a starting point for them. We have a MoU with the Energy Commission of Nigeria this means that the State will be part of any new developments in the energy sector. We have embarked on a public enlightenment campaign on energy efficiency amongst the populace. Our solar projects have been beset with many problems including theft of solar batteries and vandalism. Also some of the solar projects were poorly done, but some are doing very well. We have signed a MoU with a Canadian-Saudi Arabian firm Sky power and Fast Energy to build power plants that is strictly solar.
Delta State is going to generate about 1000 MW through this partnership. The firm will also build pockets of power plants across the State. We are in the process of sourcing land for the project and the company will invest their money. Delta ordinarily ought to be termed a lucky State with over 5 power plants that generate over 2000 MW of electricity but Delta gets only 100 MW due to government policy. But with the privatization programme in the power sector, Delta State realized that investors may only be interested in recouping their investments and will probably look at densely populated urban centres. But with our Delta beyond Oil initiative, government realised that our rural areas are the drivers of this policy. We know that we are going to rely on our rural communities if we are going to drive our Delta beyond Oil to be a success because farming ,fishing , are done in our rural communities, so what we did was to take the risk of investing in the companies who have bought into the power sector.
What informed government’s decision to buy a stake in the BEDC?
The first drive was the huge investments by the state in the power sector. In the life of this civilian administration in Delta State, we have spent close to N60 billion. Delta State is in the Benin zone which comprises Edo, Ekiti and Ondo states. If government is going to sell, let’s invest in a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) and buy these plants. The four states came up with an SPV, but it did not work. What we did as a government was to reach out to those who succeeded and bought equities of over N5 billion in the distribution and generation companies. We bought equities in BEDC and EUROAFRIC and TRANSCORP.
Will the IPP owned by the Delta State be completed before the end of the Uduaghan administration ?
The IPP is on course. Civil works are going on. All the equipment we need are on ground. In another three, four weeks, the gantry, the turbines will be mounted .What were the challenges? Where it is now is the original site from the previous administration, but when Dr Uduaghan came on board another site was proposed that was by the river, this new site made much more economic sense than the previous one because it is close to Warri.
Warri is the industrial base of the state. So, government went into negotiations with the community; engineering drawings have been drawn, EIA’s were done. At that time, the Rolls Royce turbines phase 3 , but at the point when we were to start, the community said they will not agree to the earlier agreement with government. For 2 years, it was back and forth with the community.
Government had to take a decision to take the project back to the original site. Within that two years period, the equipment had gone to phase 4 and new drawings had to be done all over; everything had to be started afresh. The nature of turbines is not something you buy off the shelf; you pay fully before manufacturing starts. The turbines were manufactured in different continents. What was being made was customised .As at the time we came on board, the equipment had arrived. The challenge of the East-West road was real as the equipment was large. But we got them to a warehouse in Oghara, the next challenge was building of access road to the location of the IPP. There was this old colonial bridge whose dimension could not accommodate the heavy duty trucks hauling the equipment. We needed to construct a new bridge and a road. Since that time work has progressed rapidly. All of the equipment is in Delta State. In the life of this administration, the IPP will be completed.
