Government finalising procurement processes on 3,000MW Mambilla power project

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has raised hope on commencement of construction works on the Mambilla hydro power project expected to add another 3,000Mega Watts (MW) to the national grid.

The Mambilla hydro-electric power project has been footdraging since the contract was awarded to two Chinese firms in May 28, 2007, but this administration has promised to undertake the project and deliver power to Nigerians

The contract was earlier awarded to China Gezhouba Group Company Limited (CGGC) and another Chinese consortium, Sinohydro at the sum of $3.2 billion (N508 billion).

Fashola, who spoke with journalists on the sidelines of an energy conference in Lagos said the government is already finalising the procurement process on the project and it is expected to take off soon.

According to him, the Federal Government is increasingly looking into alternative sources such as coal, solar and biomass for power generation in a bid to achieve national energy security.

He said: “We will soon finish hydro power plants like the 700MW Zungeru power plant and start the biggest hydro power project, the Mambilla, which will give us in one place about 3,000MW. We are finalising the procurement now,”

The minister stressed: “Our vulnerability to gas has become apparent to the development that we are seeing. And so, one of the things that the energy mix will do is not just taking power plants closer to fuel sources, but to also help in achieving national energy security. So, we are going beyond solar to coal and to a lot of hydro.

“We will use biomass because there is a sugar processing plant and sugarcane plantation somewhere in Adamawa, and we are talking to the proprietors to see how we can use some of that also for producing energy.”

Fashola, who also advocated for energy conservation in the country said: “Beyond all of this generation of power, what is important is the demand side management, which we have come here to talk about, which is energy conservation. There is capacity to conserve between 1,000MW and 2,000MW by actions that all of us should take in our homes, in our offices, the way we build, the way we use energy.”

“We have seen that air-conditioning and kitchen equipment constitute the largest consumer of power. So, how we build our houses, how we use less of air-conditioning, how we air our homes using nature, more wind, working with our architects, how we shape and situate the angle of our house so that we conserve less energy, how we use less water by being efficient in conserving water to transfer energy to cost.”