By Francesca Hangeior
There seems to be a ray of hope for Nigerians as the Federal Government reviees that it is expecting 1,268 megawatts of power from the concession and development of eight brown and green field hydropower projects constructed through public private partnerships.
It was gathered that three of the power projects were already given to concessionaires, while the Federal Executive Council had approved the concession of another of the power projects.
In a February 2024 document obtained from the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation in Abuja on Friday by our correspondent, it was observed that while three of the hydropower projects had been completed, the remaining five were in various stages of completion.
The document was presented to the National Council on Water Resources and Sanitation at its 30th regular meeting by the Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Prof. Joseph Utsev.
The country has been struggling with poor power generation and supply, as electricity firms generate and distribute between 3,000MW and 4,000MW for a population of over 200 million people.
The abysmal electricity supply situation grew worse since January this year after suppliers of gas to gas-fired thermal power plants stopped supplying the product to the plants due to the $1.3bn debt of the electricity generating plants.
To ameliorate the crisis, the Federal Government has been investing in hydropower plants that do not use gas, but are run by water-powered turbines.
The water resources minister, in the latest presentation from his ministry, stated that there had been tremendous progress in the brown and green field hydropower development through public private partnerships.
“We have conclusively concessioned some projects while still developing others through various PPP models itemised as follows: concession of the 40MW Dadinkowa Hydropower Project in Gombe State. We have attained financial closure and the plant is operational, thereby, stabilising the transmission voltage of the North-East of Nigeria.
“Concession of the 30MW Gurara Hydropower Plant in Kaduna State up to financial closure and the plant, which is under rehabilitation will commence commercial operation in the third quarter of the year 2024.
“Concession of the 40MW Kashimbila Hydropower Plant in Taraba State. The Federal Executive Council approval has been secured, the concession agreement executed and the commencement fee paid by the concessionaire to the special concession account as approved by the Federal Ministry of Finance Budget and National Planning,” Utsev said.