Not less than 700 mega watts of electricity are to be added to the national grid as the Federal Government commissions the $1.3 billion Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Project this year.

Also, the 215MW Kudenda power station in Chikun local government area of Kaduna State, which has reached 80 per cent completion, will be completed before the end of 2022.

The Minister of power Abubakar Aliyu who gave the assurance when he paid an inspection visit to the power station in Kaduna, yesterday said the turbine power station which was designed to use both gas and diesel, was initiated by the late President Umaru Yar’ Adua but started by former President Goodluck Jonathan only to be abandoned by that government in the twilight of it’s administration despite nearing completion.

Meanwhile, the deputy project manager of the Zungeru project, Li Xiao Ming, in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja, yesterday said the first turbine which would generate 175 mega watts of electricity would be commissioned in the first quarter of 2022, while the second turbine, also designed to generate 175 mega watts, would be commissioned in the second quarter of 2022.

He added that the third turbine would be commissioned in the third quarter of 2022 while the fourth and last of the turbines, would be concluded and commissioned in December the same year.

In Kaduna, the minister who toured the facility in company of the state governor Nasir El-Rufai, said the existing administration was worried about the power generation hovering around 5,000MW, noting that efforts were in top gear to quickly increase it to 7,000MW, then 11,000 MW before finally reaching 25,000MW in a few years.

According to him, the major challenge faced by electricity in Nigeria is poor transmission of power generated, while stating that government is doing everything possible to harvest the generated power, transmit it and generally improve electricity supply across the country.

“This power station project started in 2012 and it has reached over 80 per cent completion before work stalled, now we are trying to revive it. There are four partners and we are discussing with them to see how we can complete the project and bring it on stream. It would be powered by diesel first before the supply of gas because it uses dual source of power.

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“This year is a year of delivery, the present situation we are in is not good enough, we have to improve. The power generated has been 5,000MW for a long time, it would be going down without investment which is why we are having a system collapse, we had 15 or 16 year back, last year it was only two system collapses.

“Within six months, you will see the electricity of this country improve. The Siemens which is an agreement struck between Nigeria and Germany will come on stream, there are 10 massive transformers to be deployed all round the country in specific locations. We also deployed 175 mobile substations some greenfield, some brownfield, which we are going to construct.

“This is 215MW, we have lots of them; Gurara Dam with 30MW, Zungeru with 700MW, Kashimbila has given 40MW to the grid, Dadinkowa also 40MW. We will increase energy. I was in Katsina on new year day January 1 to inspect the windmill which will produce 10MW and a 330KVA transmission line to Kano.”

The minister lamented that many of the power facilities were allowed to become moribund, but that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration will do everything possible to bring them back to life and ensure that there is stable electricity devoid of uneccessary power outages .

The Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Project, a 700 megawatts (940,000hp) hydroelectric power plant, is being constructed by a Consortium of CNEEC and SINOHYDRO in Niger State, Nigeria. Upon completion, it will rank as the second largest hydroelectric power project in the country after the 760 megawatts (1,020,000 hp) Kainji hydroelectric power project.

It is also one of the biggest power projects in Africa to secure preferential loan facility from the Export-Import Bank (Exim Bank) of China.

According to Xiao Ming, the project is estimated to generate 2.64 billion kWh of electricity annually which, he added, will provide about 10 percent of Nigeria’s total domestic energy needs.

He added that besides providing flood control, irrigation as well as water supply and fish breeding facilities to host communities and beyond, the plant would provide more than 2,000 people with job opportunities.

The assistant human resources manager, Aliyu Muhammad Temaku, added that the plant would provide a huge respite both to the epileptic power sector and the struggling economy of the country when completed.

“Sinohydro Electric Power Project is the contractor handling the construction of 700mw electricity in Zungeru, Niger state. The project which started sometime in 2013 with contract sum of $1.3 billion is at the moment 95% completion stage”, he stated.

The project, according to him was initially expected to be delivered in six years starting from 2013 but because of some unforeseen challenges, both artificial and natural disasters, the initial date could not be met.

“Right now, the first unit of 175 turbines is expected to be commissioned in first quarter 2022 hopefully with the work progress and workforce we have at the moment the target would be met.

“The dam, like I said earlier is supposed to generate 700mw of electricity which will add to the national grid and it has four components of 175 turbines each, so the first unit is 175mw which is to be delivered first quarter of 2022, then subsequently the remaining three components,” he further explained.

Enumerating some of the debilitating problems hindering the deadline fir the completion of the project, Temaku, said “before now there were issues of compensation which at this moment have been addressed by the Federal Government and COVID-19 which led to a global shutdown.”

He lamented that during the period, a greater percentage of the employees had to go home in order to curb the spread of the virus and that in 2019, there was flood which he said further delayed the project.

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