Reps to Shettima: Convene emergency meeting to resuscitate 252MW plant in Bayelsa

The House of Representatives on Thursday urged the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, who is the chairman of the Board of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) to summon an emergency meeting of the board towards the resuscitation of the moribund 252MW Gbarain Power Plant in Bayelsa State.

The House also summoned the managing director of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company to appear before its Committee on Power to shed light on the state of the NDPHC and the Gbarain Power plant in particular.

The resolutions followed the adoption of a motion of urgent national importance by Rep Oboku Abonsizibe Oforji (Bayelsa, PDP).

Moving the motion, Rep Oforji said the Gbarain Power Station, which is one of the 23 National Integrated Power Projects, has remained moribund over the past three years following a fire incident at the power station.

He noted that on 30th of November 2020, the Niger Delta Power Holding company (NDPHC) lost the Power Control Module (PCM) of the Gbarain power plant to an inferno.

He said the Bayelsa State Government offered to take some responsibilities of the NDPHC since the state is the most affected, particularly as the state-owned Niger Delta University derives its electricity supply from the station.

“Accordingly, the state government undertook the rehabilitation and restoration of power supply through the 60MVA,132/33KV power transformer which is currently supplying the Gbarain power station auxiliaries and the host communities through the 2×15 MVA33/11KV injection substation which was not functioning before the intervention and also a NDPHC project,” he said.

He also expressed worry that three years down the line, the NDPHC has not been able to live up to its responsibility by replacing the power control module, which allegedly had been lying redundant in one of its uncompleted stations.

The lawmaker said it was saddening that rather than resuscitating the power plant which was built with $400m and currently valued at over $800m dollars; the management of the NDPHC is proposing to designate the 252MW Open Cycle Power station as a construction site, thereby abandoning its primary responsibility of running it to the benefit of the state, the Niger Delta and the nation at large.

“In fact, the Shell Petroleum Development Company has over 60MMsc (60 million standard cubic feet) of gas allocated to the plant which is unutilised due to the inability of the company to operate.

The motion was unanimously passed and referred to the Committee on Power.