Reps ask NDPHC to fix Gbarain power plant

The house of representatives has asked the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) to resuscitate the Gbarain 252MW power station in Koroama, Bayelsa state.

The lawmakers asked Vice-President Kashim Shettima, who is also the chairman of the NDPHC board, to summon an emergency meeting of the company to ensure that the power plant is fixed for increased supply to the national grid.

The lower legislative chamber passed the resolution during a plenary session on Thursday, following the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance sponsored by Oboku Oforji, from Bayelsa state.

The NDPHC is a private limited liability company with shareholding fully subscribed to by the federal, state, and LGAs — with a mandate to manage national integrated power projects.

While moving the motion, Oforji said the Gbarain is one of the 23 national integrated power projects classified as critical infrastructure in the electric power value chain.

The lawmaker said on November 30, 2020, the NDPHC lost the power control module (PCM) of the Gbarain power plant to an inferno.

The legislator said the Bayelsa government offered to take some responsibility in fixing the power plant since the state was the most affected, and because the Niger Delta University derives electricity supply from the station.

“Accordingly, the state government undertook the rehabilitation and restoration of power supply through the 60MVA, 132/33KV power transformer which is currently supplying the Gbarain power station auxiliaries and the host communities through the 2×15 MVA33/11KV injection substation which was not functioning before the intervention,” the lawmaker said.

“Three years down the line, the NDPHC has not been able to live up to their responsibility by replacing the PCM which allegedly has been lying redundant in one of its uncompleted stations.”

He said the power plant is 700m away from a gas processing facility that transports over one billion cubic feet of gas to the NLNG in Bonny, hence gas is not a constraint.

“One is prompted to doubt the competence of Niger Delta Holding Company to manage this power plant which has the potential to be the largest power station in the nation because of its comparative advantage over other power plants in its proximity to gas,” Oforji said.

“Reaching its potential, Gbarain power station can conveniently power the whole Niger Delta region and beyond.”

Oforji said rather than resuscitate the power plant which was built with millions of dollars, the NDPHC is proposing to designate the 252MW power station as a construction site, “thereby abandoning its primary responsibility of running it to the benefit of the state, the Niger Delta and the nation at large”.

Following his presentation, the motion was adopted when it was put to a voice vote by Tajudeen Abbas, the speaker of the house.

The lawmakers subsequently invited Joseph Ugbo, NDPHC’s MD, to explain why the power plant has not been fixed.