Geometric shifts backwards the announced date of commissioning of its Power plant by 48 hours to accommodate Nigerian President’s schedule.
President Bola Tinubu will inaugurate the integrated power complex, originally fixed for 24 February 2024, on Monday 26 February.
A statement from the company explained that the change in date is to accommodate the schedule of the President.
The Geometric Power Group Project is an integrated power plant, local transmission infrastructure, and distribution company.
Geometric Power Limited owns the 181-megawatt power plant, located in Osisioma Industrial Layout of Aba. It is approved to wheel power to nine of the 17 LGAs in Abia State. The power plant also manages an accompanying independent transmission infrastructure. However, power distribution to consumers is managed by Aba Power Limited, a subsidiary of the Geometric Group.
President Tinubu will commission both the thermal plant and Aba Power Ltd on Monday, the company said.
The Geometric Group is unique as it generates and distributes its power, unlike other firms that either generate or distribute, but not both.
The owners assessed the project cost at over $800 million, describing it as the biggest investment in Southeast Nigeria.
Apart from the plant, there are other infrastructure support such as a 27-kilometre natural gas pipeline that transports gas from Owaza in Ukwa West LGA. to the power plant.
Geometric Power Ltd also installed 150,000 kilometres of cables and wires and four new power substations. It also inherited and refurbished three additional substations from the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
The Geometric Team
Geometric Group hired Mr Ben Caven, former NEPA Director of Transmission, Generation and Engineering Divisions, to manage Geometric Power Ltd.
His counterpart in Aba Power Ltd is Mr. Patrick Umeh, a former executive with a United States Water and Light Company. He served as Commissioner in-charge of Markets, Market Rates and Competition at the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
The big masquerade is however the founder and chairman of the Group, Professor Bart Nnaji. Nnaji, a globally acclaimed robotics engineer, was Nigeria’s former Science and Technology Minister, and also Minister of Power.
How Nnaji birthed a dream
The dream of 24-hour power supply to the Aba industrial hub began 20 years ago as a wishlist from a World Bank President and a Nigerian Minister of Finance.
It began when former WB President, James Wolfensohn, and Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, visted Aba on 17 March 2004.
The Aba hub is reputed to be the centre of indigenous manufacturing in Nigeria.
After their interaction with the innovative local entrepreneurs, the duo agreed that the hub’s biggest challenge is epileptic power supply.
Wolfensohn and Okonjo-Iweala therefore encouraged Nnaji to assist the local entrepreneurs with a dedicated power plant.
The World Bank said it was willing to fund part of the project.
Nnaji had established a prior reputation as a private sector power player after leading a team of Nigerian engineers to build a 22MW Emergency Power Plant between 2000 to 2001 in Abuja.
The plant supplied uninterrupted power to the Central Business District (targeting critical institutions like the NNPC and Central Bank) as well as State House Abuja in the 3-Arms Zone.
He took up the Aba challenge and found himself on a 20-year very difficult journey that is now about to end.
We are happy, say Aba Stakeholders
Our correspondents report that news of Monday’s inauguration has filtered in and filled Aba residents and business owners with immense joy.
“Electricity was rarely available in Aba”, noted Chief Alphonsus Udeigbo, President General of the 22,000-member Aba Landlords Protection and Development Association (ALPANDA).
“When it is available it was so poor that it couldn’t power your household appliances, let alone industrial machines”.
The commissioning, according to Sir Alexander Maduakor, President of the Association of Aba Industrialists, “will mark a new dawn in the country, not just in Aba or Abia State ”
Slug: Geometric shifts commissioning date by 48 hours
Author
