Prepaid-meters
Barely one week after commissioning of its power plant, Geometric Power Group, an Aba, Abia State-based private power generation and distribution company, said that in its bid to enhance transparency, probity and integrity in service delivery to its customers, it has embarked on an aggressive mass metering campaign in addition to the one initiated by the Federal Government.
The company said that prepaid meters would, in line with the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), be made available free of charge to individuals and businesses.
According to the company’s Group Chairman and Nigeria’s former Minister of Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, the meters, which are being installed from Feeder to Feeder, is because of the huge cost implications.
He predicted that the expected sustained availability of electricity in the Aba area would make it possible for made-in-Nigeria products to compete favourably with their foreign counterparts, citing electricity as one of the core ingredients in manufacturing that was, hitherto, not available in the Aba area.
Geometric Power Group (GP), which comprises two companies, Geometric Power Aba Ltd (GPAL) and APL Electric Company Ltd, which are for generation and distribution, respectively, is the first integrated power generating and distribution company in Nigeria.
It was licensed 20 years ago to produce 188 Mega Watts (MW) of electricity and distribute to nine of the 17 councils of Abia State; Aba North and South, Obingwa, Isiala Ngwa North and South, Ugwunagbo, Ukwa East and West and Osisioma Ngwa.
Nnaji, whose plant at Osisioma Industrial layout, Aba, was commissioned on February 26, 2024, by Vice President Kashim Shettima, on behalf of President Bola Tinubu, said that about $800 million was, so far, spent on the project, whose mission, he stated, is to provide absolute reliable electricity to the designated 4,000 square kilometer Aba area.
He also said that his company built a 12-inch 27-kilometre natural gas pipeline from Owaza, in Ukwa West Council of the state, to the Osisioma Industrial Layout, Aba, where the 188 – MW Thermal Plant is located, explaining that the pipeline is dedicated to the power plant to ensure uninterrupted gas supply.
Speaking during the commissioning, the Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, in his address titled, ‘The power to dream,’ described the Geometric Power Project as a dawn of a new era in power generation and distribution, which is pivotal to Abia development, and would attract investors.
