May 15, (THEWILL) – The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), Mr. Chiedu Ugbo, on Tuesday, gave the assurance that the Gbarain Power Plant will soon become operational.
Addressing members of the House of Representatives Committee on Power who were on an oversight visit to the plant, Ugbo revealed that cash flow constraint was the major issue that delayed the resuscitation of the Power Control Module (PCM) that got burnt.
According to him, when he came on board in 2016, Gbarain Power Plant was still a construction site.
“We had to put a unit to the grid and unfortunately the temporary power control module put in place got burnt. But at the time it happened, we had a more pressing threat to the community which was the line pipe laid before 2015 was being washed away by River Nun.
“It got to a point when the pipeline was dangling on top of the river and no responsible management would ignore such a tremendous threat to the host community. We shut down the plant and made sure we fixed that pipeline by doing a horizontal direction by burying it many metres away. We couldn’t take the two capital-intensive projects together because of our financial limitations. Right now, we are owed close to N200 billion forever because as NBET is paying, it is accumulating more.
“Right now, we have completed the line pipe project and the entire community is now safe. It is now time to confront the PCM issues and we have informed the original equipment manufacturer, Scheider. We have done the procurement but to fast-track the resuscitation of Gbarain, we are moving one from one of our sites and replacing it with the one that will be purchased.
“However, all the engineering and gas assets are well preserved, and the plant is obviously well maintained. It was just coincidental that the resolution was tabled otherwise, we were already well on the way to fixing the problem,” he said.
On the date that the PCM would be fixed, Ugbo said that being an engineering issue, it would be difficult to mention a particular date immediately.
He, however, assured the member representing Yenagoa/Okpokuma Federal Constituency, Hon. Oboku Ofoji, that “our team will sit with representatives of the Bayelsa State Government and agree on timelines to bring the equipment and install it.”
About the Author
Amos Okioma is a Correspondent at THEWILL
