Posted by By Emeka Ezekiel on
DETERMINED to actualise its vision of becoming Nigeria's leading last mile energy solutions provider, Oando Power, a subsidiary of the Oando Group, has concluded plans to invest $150 million (about N201 billion) in the development of various Independent Power Projects across the country.
DETERMINED to actualise its vision of becoming Nigeria's leading last mile energy solutions provider, Oando Power, a subsidiary of the Oando Group, has concluded plans to invest $150 million (about N201 billion) in the development of various Independent Power Projects across the country.
The company disclosed that it expects to commence power generation in the country by next year, targeting industrial customers.
Vanguard gathered that the four new power plants with a total generating capacity of about 150 Megawatt (MW) is expected to be located in Lagos, Onne and Calabar and would be built along gas pipelines to enable the power plants off-take gas for conversion to power for the benefit of industrial consumers in these areas.
Oando's Business Development Manager, Lere Odusote, who confirmed this in Lagos last week disclosed that the first power plant would be built in Ikeja Industrial Area as well as other demand area across the country.
"The objective of Oando power is to offer guaranteed reliable 24-hour supply in industrial areas where constant electricity is crucial. We are also committed towards enhancing gas utilization and reduce flaring. Our business development programme involves building four new power plants between 40-150MW capacity in the next two years along gas pipeline routes.
"The power will be generated using gas fired turbines. Gas supply for the project would come from Gaslink. Our focus is on the generation and distribution of power to industrial users requiring more than one MW of power.
"The first power plant will be built in Ikeja Industrial Area, with plans for building additional plants in demand areas identified in a national study. Our target is to start power generation by 2006. Each MW will cost an estimate of about $1 million. So, the estimated cost for the four power plants is about $150 million," he disclosed.
In order to ensure its successful completion, Mr. Odusote explained that the power projects have been structured into generation and distribution.
He said that the generation aspect would involve a joint venture with a technical partner who would convert the gas bought from Gaslink to bulk power while the distribution aspect would, on the other hand, involve buying power from the generating company and sold to consumers.
Odusote further disclosed that the company has concluded plans to expand its gas pipeline facilities to enable it deliver gas to the new power stations when they eventually come on stream.
"We are working on means of expanding our gas pipelines so that we would be able to deliver gas to the power stations. The gas expansion project would be handled by Gaslink, our subsidiary. Oando has the financial capacity to execute these projects. We went to the market last for Initial Public Offer (IPO) and during that event, we raised a lot of money. So we believe we can successfully finance the power projects," he noted.
Oando Power is the latest addition to the Oando Group following the consolidation of all its affiliate and subsidiary companies into an integrated energy group five months ago. Specifically, Oando Power was set up to provide power supply to industrial consumers so as to enable them focus on their core businesses.
The Oando Power Concept was hatched in Ocean and Oil Holdings where the initial industry research, customer surveys and technical partner discussions were carried out.
Currently, Oando Power is in technical partnership with Gaslink where synergies between the companies are being exploited in marketing and common customer base.