By Emmanuel Nduka
The Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) has listed 12 small hydropower plants for concession and has subsequently inaugurated a project delivery team for the concession of the facilities.
The hydropower plants slated for concession include eight green-fields and four brown-fields located in Adamawa, Benue, Kogi, Ogun, Taraba states, as well as the Federal Capital Territory.
Director-General of the BPE, Alex Okoh, who disclosed this at the inauguration of a 13-member team to drive the concession, noted that only 40 percent out of Nigeria’s 200 million population currently had access to electricity.
“Director-General, BPE, has called for the establishment of energy sources and resources to supplement the limited power generation and supply in Nigeria with only 40 per cent of the country’s over 200 million population currently having access to electricity,” a statement issued in Abuja by BPE Head of Public Communications, Amina Othman read.
Okoh while recounting Nigeria’s abundance of natural energy resources to address power challenges, outlined the natural resources as sun, wind, hydro and biomass, adding that it was imperative to harness the full potential of small hydros for the purpose of electricity production.
The BPE DG said the generation capacities of the plants were between 1.2 megawatts to 1,500MW, adding that the drive to unlock the values of the plants provided another opportunity for the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and the BPE to work together.
This, he said, was in addition to the collaborative efforts at the partial commercialisation and concession of four pilot River Basin Development Authorities across the country.
Okoh therefore charged the 13-member Committee drawn from relevant Federal Ministries, the BPE and other stakeholders to ensure transparent transaction, provide an avenue for effective information gathering on the assets, among others.
He urged the Committee to screen the eight green-field small hydros in line with the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission (ICRC) guidelines and BPE’s processes and procedures.
