Obiyo: Proposed 500MW Coal Power Project Will Boost Economy of South-east
Chief Executive Officer of One Nation Energy Platform, Dr. Uzoma Obiyo told reporters, including Chineme Okafor that the firm’s upcoming 500MW coal power plant in Enugu State will amongst other purposes, support large-scale economic development in south-e
Coal to power is not an easy endeavour, how prepared is you company for this? Well, you know, I am a Nigerian. I was born and breed in this country. I know that power is critical. I passed through the eye of a needle to stand where I am, and I know that part of the setbacks Nigerians and people have always had in this country is lack of power.
Otherwise, small scale industries would have been emerging; so, it is a familiar environment for me. I know it is essential and how critical it is for us to ensure we flag-off this project as fast as possible.
Before signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the ministry of power, , we had conducted a lot of research. We have done a couple of consultations, we have engaged the federal government and we know how important the project is in the power sector and so cannot embark on what we are not sure of.
Nigeria as a whole is coming from a telecom sector that has evolved from 2000 till date. I am sure you know were telephoning was in Nigeria before 2000 or 1999. There were no telephones, Nigerians were suffering from telephones. I remember that former President Obasanjo took that telephoning issue seriously and ensured that the appropriate licenses were given; today Nigerians have access to telephone.
This is the same fate that the power sector has been suffering over the years and we are grateful to the President and all the people who have made it possible to ensure that this sector was unbundled and we can come in to invest good money to upgrade it.
We are part of the immediate beneficiaries of this unbundling and we sure of our capacity to deliver on this project, after all we are into business. We can assure that we are going to work very hard to ensure that the coal power project in Enugu becomes a reality. Apart from the MoU you company signed with the government, there are others that were signed in the past that are yet to start; when exactly do you plan to roll out? Ideally, it takes between three years to start and finish a power plant when all arrangements are in place. We have our plans and we have already achieved a great deal faster than we had planned.
In our meeting prior to signing a MoU with the government, we got assurances from the ministry that they are going to partner with us to ensure that all the appropriate licenses are secured. And I can tell you that we are very fast. Most of the licenses have been secured at the moment, we are however not losing any sleep on what has happened with other MoUs, we are commiteed to our plan and will see it come through. Is your plant sited on a coal deposit or you are going to transport coal to the plant, what transportation arrangements have you made in the case of the former? We have secured a mining license at Onyeama and everything is in place almost. There won’t be any transportation difficulty as in the case of moving the coal to the power plant.
Of course, there will be several means of transportation. We have our own haulage system in addition to other commercial systems that we will put in place for ease of transportation. Remember unlike in the case of gas where there are cases of huge and rampant vandalism of gas pipelines lately, this coal to power project eliminates such ugly practice because there will nothing to vandalise by any criminal. How much are you putting in this project? It is a multibillion naira project and will require several billions of naira. I cannot give you the figures now but you should be aware that we have the appropriate financial capacity to ensure that the required funding are put in place. What form of technology do you plan to deploy in the plant going by the environmental concerns about coal? Well, you know we are experts in renewable energy and that makes this our call. Coming from the renewable energy environment, I can assure you that we have the required clean energy technology to embark on this project.
We are also going to ensure that there are no any environmental hazards as soon as these project to take-off, assessments on this have and must be carried out to make sure that we do not go against the internationally allowed emission standard. Do you have any specific coverage area for the project? First, it will be sited in Enugu and will feed the entire South-east and then to the entire nation. Remember we are talking about 500MW.
The entire south east will be good for this project, imagine feeding such amount of power to the industrial zones in the south east and other neighbouring states. As an entrepreneur, l believe that the only way that we could achieve our industrial, economic growth, poverty elimination and inclusive economic growth is through achieving available and sustainable power supply and that is essential for the growth of small scale businesses and cluster industries.
This made China an industrial giant that it is today. Many developing countries and even developing ones, also face power supply and energy challenges, but what is essential is that they have an implementable and achievable plan to overcome such challenges, we have that now and have to latch on it. Again, financing for coal power projects is tight, are you up to its rigours?
Well, like I told you earlier, we do not anticipate any funding issues. We understand the processes, we have engaged the necessary financial institutions to ensure that the right things are put in place. And our company is an international company with good financial network. We have a very sound access to funding. Do you have any track record on such projects? We don’t need to have done this before, yet there is always a mileage to everything that a human being wants to do. The most important thing you need to know from us is the fact that we said we have done well in other sectors such as the telecom sector.
We are in power generation and we ae also going to go beyond the limit, we have sound technical partners from South Africa, Stefanutti, which is currently building the largest coal power station in the world. They are our major partners and they are the best everywhere in term of coal-fired power plants. Is the federal government making any financial commitment to the project? The federal government is still the policy maker and the regulator of the power sector. The consumers are the beneficiaries of the products. There is a process in place, it is like a partnership of which the federal government under the ministry of power will make sure that we are taken through the processes without unnecessary delays.
The government is not committing a dim to the project but with their assurance that there will be no bottlenecks along the way, we are sure to get it off the table.
Why shouldn’t we engage coal which is available and accessible and could also be turned to clean fuel with gasification technology? How sustainable is coal to power in Nigeria? China which has now become the economic power house of the world still uses coal as a main source of power generation and so do other main economies of the world.
Nigerians should realise that significant work has been put into getting this sector back on track and coal to power are part of the overall plan to make the country energy efficient. My company, One Nation Energy Platform Ltd is pleased to be partnering with the government in developing the coal sector.