The Federal Government yesterday resolved the long-drawn dispute between Geometric/Aba Power Limited and Interstate Electrics, owners of Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) over the Aba ring-fenced, with the signing of an agreement carving out the ring fence from Enugu DISCO for Geometric/Aba Power Limited, as originally intended before the power sector privatisation exercise. Geometric/Aba Power will now pay back the bid fee for the Aba ring fence to Interstate Electrics. As part of the agreement, Geometric/Aba Power can sell their excess power to Enugu DISCO.
The signing of the agreement, which took place yesterday in Abuja, was witnessed by Babatunde Fashola, minister of Power, Works and Housing, Louis Edozien, Permanent Secretary Federal Ministry of Power, and the two parties in the dispute.
“It is a return to the original agreement which gave Geometric/Aba Power, the first right of refusal for the Aba-ring-fence, should the then Enugu DISCO be privatised”, said Pascal Dozie, chairman of Diamond Bank – one of the consortium of the banks that financed the project.
“We are elated by this historic agreement. We will briskly to go back to site and complete the little outstanding work on the project, so that the people of Aba will enjoy the uninterrupted power supply for which they have been yearning for years”, said Bart Nnaji, chairman, Geometric Power/Aba Power Limited and former minister of Power.
This development is seen as a great achievement for Fashola, who within months as the minister, successfully resolved the dispute that lingered for years.
It will be recalled that in a YouTube programme on Sunday, Fashola, said that his ministry has succeeded in bringing both parties to the negotiating table, in an attempt to resolve the lingering dispute and gave a firm promise that the dispute would be resolved soon.
The $500 million Geometric/Aba power plant has capacity to produce and distribute about 141 megawatts (MW) of electricity in its first phase, with new distribution lines, four new sub-stations and three rehabilitated sub-stations. Each plant is to produce 47 MW of power, supported by a 60 MVA per transformer. The power plant is to be powered by gas and so the company has built a gas plant at Shell company flow station at Owaza in Ukwa West Local Government Area of Abia State, and laid a pipeline spanning 27 kilometers to the power plant at Osisioma.
It will be recalled that on May 11, 2004, the Federal Government, the now defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) and Geometric Power Limited (GPL) entered into and executed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) under which GPL was granted the exclusive right to construct a 3 x 35 MW open cycle gas turbine power plant and designated sub-stations in Aba, Abia State, which would generate electric power for distribution by Aba Power Limited (APL) to residential and commercial customers and to industrial clusters in a ring-fenced island in Aba.
The government, NEPA and APL executed a lease agreement on April 28, 2005 for the distribution of power to the ring-fenced residential and commercial consumers in Aba. By the terms of the agreement, NEPA assigned its right to distribute electric power in the ring-fenced area of Owerri-nta, Osisisoma, Ogbor Hill, Factory road and Port Harcourt road in Aba and also leased its distribution facilities within the contract area to Aba Power Limited.
A supplementary agreement was made on August 31, 2006 between the Federal Government, represented by the minister of power and steel, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and Enugu Distribution Company (EDC) and Geometric/Aba Power Limited. EDC and TCN were substituted for NEPA as parties to the lease agreement of 2005 and assumed their respective obligations.
FRANK UZUEGBUNAM
