By Stella Odueme
The Federal Government has commissioned a 300KWp Solar PV pilot project in Kainji, Niger State.
At the commissioning, the Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu said the project will increase power generation capacity, lower electricity costs while also fostering enhanced collaboration between the main concessionaire, Mainstream Energy Solution and its Chinese partner, HEDC in the renewable energy field.
A statement by Bolaji Tunji, Special Adviser, Strategic Communication and Media Relations to the Minister at the weekend said the power project comes with 675KWh Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), which is an integral part of the extension of 1G3 and 1G4 under the rehabilitation of the 1G9 in Kainji HPP project.
The Minister said the Power Ministry’s objective is to meet power demand by ensuring improved distribution and transmission infrastructure to minimize technical and commercial losses, closing the metering gap and resolving the liquidity, power theft and vandalism challenges.
“It is of no use to expend so much energy in providing power facilities if the delivery channel is weak, that is why the Ministry is concentrating on improvement of the transmission and distribution capacity”, he said.
He urged communities where power projects are sited to police them against theft and destruction.
“What is the essence of government and private companies expending resources on these power facilities while some elements within the society will deliberately move to destroy the facilities which are national assets. What we witnessed towards the end of 2023 was disheartening.
“Some of the power towers were brought down with loss of lives, in some cases, this is quite unfortunate. We should take it as a personal and collective responsibility to protect the infrastructure”, he stated.
The Minister disclosed that plans are also underway to wield the big stick on power theft through adequate legislation in order to serve as deterrent to others.
“Presently, we have about 12 million electricity users, but only about five million are metered. As we are all aware, the President set up the Presidential Mass Metering Initiative of which I am the chairman, we are working assiduously on this initiative to bridge the metering gap”, he said.
The statement said that the Managing Director of Mainstream Energy Solution, Engineer Lamu Audu said the project is in line with the National Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency policy of the Federal government which sets out the blueprint to increase the country’s renewable energy development by 2030.
According to him, plans are at an advanced stage to build a 450MWp and 150MWp Solar PV at Kainji and Jebba Hydro Power Plants (HPPs).
He said the pilot project is the beginning of Mainstream’s integration of Variable Renewable Energy into its core business.
