By Adewale Sanyaolu
Nigeria’s quest to improve on electricity supply to homes and industries has suffered another setback as a 495MW power plant has failed to take-off due to the absence of a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).
Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Century Power Generation Limited, Mr. Chukwueloka Umeh, stated this during an interactive session with journalists on the state of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) held via zoom.
According to Umeh, the power plant located in Okija, Anambra State, conceptualised in 2011, was originally designed to be a 1,500MW IPP gas fired power facility, saying the challenges in NESI forced the company to re-evaluate and change its focus, scaling down operations to 495MW.
He explained further that the plant earlier scheduled for commissioning in 2021 recorded a major setback because the company was not able to execute a PPA with Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) company. He said NBET had initialed the PPA in 2015 and again in 2017 but failed to execute same as a bankable PPA to kick-off the funding for the power plant.
Umeh added that Century Power had secured investment from its partners at that time to the tune of $700 million to be injected into the power plant, saying the funds were never released due to the absence of a PPA executed by NBET.