President Bola Tinubu has said that Nigeria’s plans to become industrialised, create jobs and achieve economic growth cannot be achieved if reliable energy is not generated, transmitted and distributed.
Tinubu said this at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Gwagwalada Independent Power Plant (GIPP) Project held in Abuja on Friday.
He reiterated that he had promised to prioritize energy availability and stability while using available energy resources to increase power generation beyond the current capacity and strengthen the integrity of the transmission infrastructure while distribution bottlenecks are removed.
“We cannot be productive without energy efficiency; To accelerate our economic growth, we must remove every obstacle on our way to progress,” he said.
In his address, Mele Kyari, GCEO, NNPCL said Nigeria has abundant gas resource which NNPCL as a commercial enterprise is leveraging to monetize the available resources by expanding access to energy to support economic growth, energy access, industrialization and job creation.
He described the project as a giant step towards achieving the NNPC’s goal of adding 5GW to the national power generation by 2024
He said currently NNPC and partners are delivering about 800MW to the national grid from Afam Vl and Okpai Phase thermal power plants with combined installed capacity of 1,100MW, adding that the Okpai Phase 2 project that will add up to 320MW of power to the national grid and progressing with other power plant projects across the country including those along the AKK pipeline route has been completed.
He added that the Gwagwalada IPP is among the NNPC flagship power projects along the AKK corridor which is part of the 3,600MW cumulative power capacity including Kaduna IPP (900MW) and Kano IPP (1,350MW).
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The Gwagwalada IPP is among the NNPC flagship power projects along the AKK corridor. will be delivered in collaboration with General Electric as the as the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and China Machinery and Engineering Corporation (CMEC) as the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Contractor.
He said this is part of the 3,600MW cumulative power capacity which includes Kaduna IPP (900MW) and Kano IPP (1,350MW)
“Our ambition is to create capital power plants across the country in small scale where transmission issues will not become a major concern; Expanding access to energy will change the game, It will create a better investment climate and promote balanced economic growth, a win-win situation for the Nation and for NNPC as a commercial company,” he said.
The project according to NNPCL was necessitated by the need to deliver gas towards achieving additional power generation capacity in Nigeria and make a substantial contribution to the positioning of gas as the preferred fuel for power.
The first phase of the project has a capacity of 350MW consisting of one gas turbine and one steam turbine
Situated on 54.7 hectares of land at Gwagwalada, Abuja, the project has a combined cycle of three power train blocks of 4500 megawatts (MW) each, Two gas turbines, Two heat recovery and steam generators, one steam turbine and can generate 10.3m MW per hour of electricity.
