When, on November 1, 2013, Shiroro Hydro-electric Power Station was taken over by the North South Power (NSP) Limited, members of the host communities were optimistic that they would enjoy social and economic benefits. There was also the hope that there would be enough employment opportunities and more basic amenities.
Conversely, their hopes and aspirations are yet to be realised as the firm is yet to meet most of these expectations since it has not actually raised its power generation level to secure high market in the Nigerian electricity supply industry (NESI) owing to some technical and financial constraints.
Playing host to the Post-privatisation monitoring team of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) in the station in Shiroro Niger State, the firm, which manages the 600 Mega Watts (MW) power plant, revealed its challenges in terms of poor funding from the market operator that only released 50 per cent of the revenue and how the Hydro-Electric Power Area Development Commission (HYPADEC) fund has somehow affected the expansion plans of the station.
It added that it has not secured its share of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) power sector intervention fund.
Despite the challenges, the firm has planned to expand the plant with additional 300MW photovoltaic plant. According to the management of the company, the expansion plan was not only aimed at increasing the capacity of the entity, but also to secure an alternative in case power from hydro switches off.
Unfolding the plan to the delegation which was led by Assistant Director, General Counsel, Mr. Abdullahi Shaibu, the NSP Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Abdulaziz Dauda, an engineer, said in order to “generate employment, NSP is planning to establish a large solar power plant in Shiroro.
“When we start building the plant itself, most of the work force will be derived from the host communities. It is novel in Africa. I don’t think we have 300MW photovoltaic plant anywhere in the world,” he said.
According to him, the station still has a vast land from its airstrip to the reservoir for the construction of the solar plant that has passed its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) stage at the Federal Ministry of Environment. He noted that although the design is ready, the next stage is securing the interconnection approval from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
The company seeks the approval of the BPE for the expansion and that of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) for licensing and the power purchase agreement.
The firm’s Chief Technical Officer, Mr. Roland Lwiindi said when NSP gets the approvals, the first phase of the plant which will deliver 100MW will come on stream by 2017.
On other expansion plans to increase power generation, especially in terms of tackling the water storage challenge, he said the installed capacity of the station is 600MW but the reservoirs are not always filled to the brim in every three years which results in a 300MW average power generation in such years since the station rations its water.
He revealed that this year when water came in full, the plant produced 450MW average until it receded in February and March; making it impossible to run the plant for 24 hours due to lack of sufficient water.
Following the storage constraint, the North South Power Company realised that since Shiroro is on the Kaduna River with River Dina as a major tributary, it is possible to channel water from Gurara to increase the water level from Shiroro.
The plan, he said, will culminate in more energy generation at Shiroro and would be of great benefit to Gurara and Zungeru, even though it will not affect the existing Gurara station.
His words: “When you look at our energy figures, there is a number called capacity factor. That means that Shiroro has capacity factor of 44 per cent. Basically, we have two constraints for two out of every three years; the reservoirs are not filled up. Those years the generation will be controlled by lack of water. Although we have 600MW capacity, the average generation will just be below 300MW because we ration water.
“Roughly one in every three years, the water does come in full and the reservoirs will be filled up. But we are still constrained by lack of sufficient storage. Two weeks ago, it was filled to the brim but today it is 89 per cent full. By February and March, we won’t have enough water to run it for 24 hours because we won’t have enough storage. What we have realised is that Shiroro is on the Kaduna River and Dina River is a major tributary of Shiroro.
The Dina River, at some point, runs four kilometers off the Gurara River. So, it is possible to put a channel from there to increase the water in Shiroro. That will benefit Shiroro and it will generate more energy which will benefit Gurara as well as Zungeru that is being constructed.
“We are about to conclude the feasibility study on that, even as we are expecting the final report. This project won’t affect the existing Gurara station because it is going to tap water down the stream of that station. So, we request for support for these projects.”
The Chief Operation Officer said globally the main grouse of the communities is in the area of employment. His words: “Anywhere you go, the issue of employment opportunities for host communities is of paramount importance. If you look at it globally, I think NSP has done well in terms of rationalisation of workers.
“Let’s say that the junior cadre constitutes about 60 per cent of the work force. This is what matters. The work force is from this community. We were least affected in terms of rationalisation. We had 435 and now we have 307. Virtually 100 people were rationalised.
“That is important because we have kept the majority of that cadre which would have been affected. But in terms of generating employment which the community is concerned about, we have to be a bit patient since the business needs expansion.
“We have been meeting with the youth of the community. We have about three forums. One is the police community relationship. Since NSP came in, we had not added any borehole.”
