Otuoke, in Ogbia local council of Bayelsa State, the hometown of President Goodluck Jonathan, has been without power supply in the last six months, a New Telegraph on Sunday investigation has revealed.
Information available to New Telegraph on Sunday indicates that the turbine that supplies Otuoke with electricity broke down since September 2013, as Otuoke is one of the communities presently not connected to the national grid and has been on gas turbine for over 40 years.
New Telegraph on Sunday gathered that the gas turbine serving the President’s community was shut down last year for maintenance. Bayelsa State Commissioner for Energy, Mr. Francis Ikio, stated that the turbine was shut down for major repair works. Ikio explained that the turbine was being upgraded to generate at least 15mw electricity from its current capacity of four megawatts.
What this means is that the turbine, when operational again, would have the capacity to carry improved load from the emerging commercial and domestic electricity demands of the president’s town. It was further gathered that one of the generating plants of the turbine gas was sent to Canada for comprehensive repairs. However, six months after the turbine went for repairs, it is yet to be fully functional.
When New Telegraph on Sunday sought explanations from officials of ministry of Power and the Transmission Company of Nigeria, our correspondent was told that since Otuoke is not connected to the national grid, the problem of non-availability of electricity in the town is the headache of relevant agencies in Bayelsa State. Jonathan Ogbonna, a Special Assistant to the Minister of Power stated that the problem of electricity in Otuoke was a local one since it was not connected to the national grid.
Ogbonna noted, “It is not under our network. It is under the state turbine. It is the state Commissioner for Energy that can answer your questions on why there has not been light there since September.” He further explained that “sometime last year there was a collapsed tower in Bayelsa and it was repaired. That is on the transmission side.
I made a call to the TCN General Manager in Port Harcourt to enquire if there is any transmission problem to Bayelsa and he confirmed that there was no transmission problem in the state. According to him, whatever that is happening at Otuoke is a local distribution issue.” Our reporter learnt from the Ministry of Power that three contracts have been awarded to remedy the power problem in Otuoke community in particular and Bayelsa State in general.
The contracts, according to the them include the upgrading of the existing 30MVA to 90MVA at Gbarantoro, Yenegoa Sub- Station; 13.9km, 33kva over headline to Federal University, Otueke and Installation of 2×2.5MVA injection substation and construction of Angiama to Eniwari 33kv line with spurs to Oporoma and Federal Polytechnic, Ekowe; and Reconstruction of switch yard at Kolokiri and Angiama sub-station.
The contracts have 12 months completion period from time of mobilization. Recently, President Jonathan inaugurated operation “Light-Up Rural Nigeria”, a project aimed at using renewable energy to get electricity across to rural communities in all the 36 states of the federation, especially communities not connected to the national grid.
Jonathan had at the inauguration of the project held at Durumi, a rural community, Bwari area council of the federal capital territory (FCT), pledged to ensure constant power supply to Nigerians. The President had noted that the project was initiated under the second phase of government’s power sector reform programme planned for the post-privatisation period.
Jonathan said the initiative was conceived primarily to promote the use of renewable energy, thereby assisting the vision of providing reliable electricity supply to all Nigerians. For residents and business operators, life has been hectic in the last six months as they have to run their own independent power projects with generators.
Source: New Telegraph
