Before Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal took over the mantle of leadership in Sokoto state in 2015, his predecessors had sunk an initial whooping N3.8 billion into the independent power project (IPP). The target then, specifically in November 2008, was that the project would provide 24-hour electricity to the state.
After 11 years and despite gulping more than N4 billion, the project which was scheduled to generate 38 megawatts of electricity within six months of completion by the United States-based energy company, Vulcan Capital Energy, stalled as the power plant couldn’t generate any electricity because of fuelling challenges.
Back then, experts had hinted that the project was bound to fail because “any generating power plant designed for the mass market, and is diesel-driven, can’t be sustained.”
Apparently, the plant became a white elephant project.
However, much of this was to change one year after Governor Tambuwal took over the mantle of leadership. In December 2016, the state government successfully conducted a test run of the project with a minimum installed capacity of 30MW.
During that test run, the Chief Operating Officer, COO, of the contracting firm, Vulcan Elvaton Ltd, Franklin Ngbor, stated that “What remains now is the synchronisation of the plant with the fuel tank and the main evacuation line, down to the transmission line.”
According to him, “the plant when fully completed, finally fired and integrated into the national grid, can work for five consecutive years nonstop. It is only after it works for five years that it can be shut down for routine maintenance.”
Besides his efforts that the IPP project takes off, Tambuwal sought the collaboration of the Federal government to establish a 10-megawatt solar-powered electricity plant that will connect agencies and about 100 communities in the state.
It is in his further efforts to ensure that all these comes to fruition that the governor, on Tuesday, met with the Minister of Power, Mamman Kwagyang Saleh at the Power House in Abuja, to discuss the matter and find a prompt course of action.
Bello is Special Adviser Media and Publicity to the Governor of Sokoto state
