TheCable

Bart Nnaji, Nigeria’s former minister of power and the chief executive officer of Geometric Power (GP), has revealed that his company is partnering with Thomas Edison-founded General Electric (GE) to build a 1,080 megawatt (MW) power plant in Nigeria.

The project is said to be executed in phases, with the first phase delivering 500 MW at a cost of $800.

Nnaji told Reuters that his firm had also appointed London-based Standard Chartered Bank as financial advisers for the first phase of the plant.

“We have a 1,080 megawatt project … (in partnership) with General Electric. The power goes to the national grid. What we are doing is to build up power projects in this way,” Nnaji told Reuters late on Tuesday on the sidelines of a power conference in Lagos.

Nnaji further said the firm (GP) was in discussions with some Chinese, European and US investors and expected financial close by year-end.

Construction would start early next year and would be set for use  by 2019.

The Nigerian power monopoly was broken in 2013 when the Goodluck Jonathan-led government privatised the power sector in a bid to attract foreign investors and create competition in the industry.

Geometric Power, which has a 141 megawatt captive power for industrial use in Abia state, said the new plant would also be located in Abia state, southeast Nigeria.

When Jonathan assumed office in 2010, Nigeria was generating 2,460MW of electricity, which rose to an all-time high of 4,500MW in 2013 just after the privatisation.

According to Sam Amadi, chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the country now generates slightly less than 4,000MW.

However, President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to generate, transmit and distribute at least 20,000 MW of electricity by 2019.