Mambilla Hydro Dam, Taraba State
State has spent over 30 years on the drawing board without becoming a reality.
Our reporter examines the reasons for the delay and the way out.
Since the contract was first awarded in 2007, the Mambilla Hydropower Project
in Taraba State has been facing a lot of challenges which delayed in its take-
off.
Experts have said that the power play around the project may have deprived
Nigerians from reaping the benefits four years ago. The effect, they say, is that
Nigeria has gained more dark days than light due to over investments in the
thermal, gas-reliant power plants.
Now, with another administration in place, there are hopes that the old hurdles
can be surmounted for work to fully resume at the site of the mega power
project.
The Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, in a recent update on power
stations in the power sector, said that out of the 26 stations, only three are
hydro based. They are the Kainji/Jebba Generation company (Genco) and the
Shiroro Genco operating at less than 1,000megawatts (mw) combined capacity
at present.
With the continuous vandalism of oil and gas infrastructures in the South, the
country’s power supply has been a nightmare as it rose barely above 3,000mw
last week and went down again to 2,500mw at the weekend.
A former official of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and an expert in the
power sector told Daily Trust at the weekend that the politics which beclouded
the largest hydro-project (Mambilla) in West Africa has left the national grid to
drop to 2,500mw due to poor capacity from the hydros.
The expert said that the Mambilla station should have been ready since 2011 to
provide 4,000mw electricity. Similarly, the 700mw proposed Zungeru hydro
ought to be completed next year. Unfortunately, the plant faces a legal tussle
that hampers success on its construction.
“With the capacity from Kainji/Jebba and Shiroro hydros, we could get up to
4,000mw from hydro Generation companies (Gencos) alone and we would not
have been in darkness now,” he said.
He disclosed that the ideal capacity of the Mambilla hydropower is 2,600mw
and not 3,050mw as represented by the past administration. Being privy to the
original project documents of May 2007, the expert said that the initial
consultant of the project, Lahmeyer Nigeria, estimated that it was meant to
generate 2,600mw.
He said that a former vice president of Nigeria got a new French consultant
who expanded the project’s scope to 3,050mw and revalued the cost to $3.2bn
(about N636.9bn) in 2011.
The power sector expert attributed the delay in starting the project since 2011
to the inclusion of Sinohydro Corporation, a Chinese firm that was not part of
the original bid winners-CGC/CGGC in 2005.
“The Obasanjo government signed the contract with the Chinese firm in 2007
and if it was followed by now, we would have had 2,600mw additional
hydropower to the grid. But the people who stopped it are in this country and
they stopped it for selfish reasons. They wanted to put their candidates there
even when they did not work on the project tender.”
The Daily Trust gathered that the CGGC recently had a meeting with the
Presidency on the Mambilla project on the need to return to the original project
design.
A source said: “With the coming of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015,
CGGC had to revert to the original bid document and contract of 2007. That
was what the project faced for the last eight years during which it should have
been completed and operated.”
Meanwhile, recent updates from the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing
indicate that the process for the commencement of the project will record
significant boost this year.
Mr Babatunde Fashola, the Minister, Ministry of Power, Works and Housing,
recently said that Mr Darious Dickson Ishaku, the Taraba State Governor, who
was a former minister of state, power, would acquire land for the project.
“The first thing to do is to acquire the land and deal with compensation issues,
which the governor has promised to deal with,” Fashola said.
“The feasibility study has been done and so too the environmental impact
assessment. We move one day at a time closer to starting Mambilla.”
A director in the power ministry has said that the government has agreed that
“two Chinese firms should handle the engineering, procurement and construction
(EPC) contract, adding that the firms are the Gezhouba Construction Group
Corporation (CGGC) and the Sinohydro Corporation.”
Records show that CGGC has exclusively completed or participated in
construction of over 100 hydropower stations, including the world’s largest
hydropower plant, the Three Gorges Project, in Hubei Province, China, which
generates over 20,000mw.
Sinohydro is presently engaged alongside another Chinese firm, CNEEC in the
710mw Zungeru hydropower project in Niger State since May, 2013.
The official said that the project cost has been reviewed as “the Bureau of
Public Procurement (BPP) has valued the project at $5.732billion (about
N1.140trn).
The source, who is privy to the project, said that the contract is for a period of
63 months (over five years), including 12 months for a defect liability period
(test running) before it is handed over to Nigeria.
Another official who is privy to the legal aspect besetting the project, said that
the federal government will contribute its 15 per cent equity financing from the
proceeds of N1trn sales of 10 power plants under the National Integrated Power
Projects (NIPPs) whose transaction is pending since 2014.
The ministry official and our expert sources said that the balance of 85 per cent
fund is now with the China Export Import (EXIM) Bank and would be disbursed
once Nigeria provides its 15 per cent fund.
The director said that the country will negotiate for a loan from development
agencies to enable it fulfill its part of the agreement, should the expected NIPP
fund suffers more delay.
Culled from Daily Trust
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