Fashola, JICA inaugurate 60 MVAR project to improve electricity supply
Babatunde Fashola and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency, JICA on Thursday inaugurated 60 Modular Automatic Voltage Regulator (MVAR), power capacitor bank project to improve voltage of electricity supplied in selected locations across the country.
Speaking at the inauguration of the project, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, while lauding JICA’s support said it was wrong for anyone to say power investors were leaving Nigeria and stressed that on the contrary, the appetite for investments in the sector was still high.
Fashola, officials of JICA, as well as those from the Transmission Company Nigeria, said the inaugurated project will serve the Federal Capital Territory and neighbouring states.
The second power capacitor bank, which will serve other locations, is located in Keffi and will be handed over to the Federal Government by JICA in June this year.
On investments in the power sector, Fashola said, “This morning somebody said all the investors are leaving Nigeria. But please play the speech of the Japanese Ambassador, Sadanobu Kusaoke, to this person that not only have they (JICA) completed these projects, they are undertaking another one in Lagos and they are going to do more.
“If there was one sector in the Nigerian economy that investment appetite is high, it is the power sector and the potentials that it brings on. I couldn’t say that more eloquently than the way Ambassador Kusaoke has put it.”
The Chief Representative of JICA, Nigeria Office, Katsutoshi Komori, described the projects as “emergency improvement facilities,” adding that improving core infrastructure in the power sector was one of the priority areas of the agency’s programmes in Nigeria.
He said, “It is my pleasure to be here today to celebrate the commissioning and handover of ‘the project for emergency improvement of electricity supply facilities in Abuja.’ In Nigeria, the high ratio of reactive power, together with insufficient capacity of facilities, interfere with the quality of electricity supply.
“For instance, areas like the Federal Capital Territory and Nasarawa State have particularly high population growth rate and are some distance away from power generation facilities, as a result suffer from voltage drops and power loss. To address this challenge, JICA provided a grant for the procurement and installation of power capacitor and related equipment at Apo and Keffi substations.”
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, TCN, Usman Mohammed, said the 60MVAR power capacitor bank situated in the Apo transmission substation in Abuja, was necessitated by the ongoing transmission rehabilitaion and reinforcement of power infrastructure in Nigeria by the TCN to improve its wheeling capacity at the interface level with electricity distribution companies.
He noted that the facility was installed by JICA, adding that it will improve the voltage of the power supply in Abuja, Nasarawa and Benue states.
The grant agreement for the Apo and Keffi power capacitor bank projects was signed between the Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning and JICA, with the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing as a witness on February 11, 2016, while the contract was awarded to EPC contractor in July 2016 at the cost of $12.1m.