TheCable

Adebayo Adelabu, the minister of power, has promised to ensure the completion of the Zungeru power plant and “subsequently add 700MW to the national grid”.

The Zungeru Hydroelectric power plant is the largest hydroelectric dam to be built in Nigeria since the commissioning of the Kainji dam in 1968.

Situated on River Kaduna, the power plant consists of four turbines each with 175MW making a total installed capacity of 700MW.

It also has a total storage capacity of 11,700 million cubic meters of water and its economic value is over N132 billion per year, based on average annual production of 2,460 gigawatt-hours (2,460GWh) of renewable energy.

In an interview with journalists on Friday, the newly appointed minister, while promising Nigerians improved electricity supply between six months and one year, said the Zungeru power plant is “about to be completed”.

“Within the next six months, there would be a major addition to the national grid, in terms of the hydropower plant, that is the Zungeru 700mw in Niger state that is about to be completed,” he had said.

“This will be the biggest one in sub-Saharan Africa when completed. I will do everything to ensure that the Zungeru power plant is inaugurated and subsequently add 700mw to the national grid.”

But in a previous statement, Abubakar Aliyu, former minister of power, claimed otherwise.

Aliyu had said that the Zungeru power project had been completed and the power generated from the plant had already been added to the national grid.

“I want to say that on Thursday 25 May 2023 the Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Plant became a reality. On Thursday we added to the grid 700MW,” the former minister had said in May.

“The testing started last on Wednesday 24 May and information has reached us, with a pictorial view of the meters showing that the 700MW has gone on the grid.”

Corroborating Aliyu’s statement, Sanusi Garba, the chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), said: “The Zungeru power plant has not only added 700MW of clean generation capacity but significantly diversified our generation mix and enhanced the nation’s security of supply”.

It is currently unclear the cause of the disconnect between Adelabu’s revelation and his predecessor’s claims, but a look at the website of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) displays “ongoing transaction” below the name tag of the power plant.