The national electricity grid is to recieve additional 30 MW as completion of the Gurara power project is slated for early 2017.
This was revealed by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, after inspecting the 30 Megawatts (MW) hydropower plant project in Kaduna, saying the additional power would boost efforts to stabilize power supply in the country.
According to a press statement issued by the special assistant to the minister on communication, Mr Hakeem Bello, Fashola, who was fielding questions from reporters, assured of the completion by early 2017 and explained that it remained the completion of the Gurara/Kudenda Substation in Kaduna where energy would come down for distribution, adding that approval had already been given for the building of the substation.
The Minister, who also said the Gurara hydropower project was also a source of transporting energy, added that the place was supposed to evacuate power from that location through to Kaduna and Mando substations to Kudenda substation to connect to the Kaduna Power Plant.
He said: “All the lines are already built as you can see. It remains just the substation where energy comes down and redistributed that we are waiting to complete. With the approval we have now, we should finish this early next year at the latest.
“When I briefed you on last Wednesday after the Federal Executive Council, I spoke of the approval granted by the Council for the Gurara/Kudenda Substation in Kaduna; that is what is delaying this project.
“The place is supposed to evacuate power from here through to Kaduna and Mando Substation to Kudenda substation to connect this to the Kaduna Power Plant,” he said.
Expressing delight that the objective of Incremental Power was being achieved, Fashola noted that with Wind Power being developed in Katsina, Gurara Hydro-power in Kaduna, the Kashimbilla Hydropower in Taraba, added to Jebba, Kainji, and Shiroro Hydropower plants, the nation’s energy mix was slowly but surely coming together.
“You have seen that your country is developing Wind power in Katsina, is developing hydro power here in Kaduna, the Gurara Power Plant where we are now, the Kashimbilla where we went yesterday. We have been to Jebba, we have been to Kainji, we have been to Shiroro together; so slowly the energy mix is coming together”, the Minister said.
Pointing out that the role of the his ministry in hydroelectricity generation, the minister noted that it was to use the force of the dammed water to create energy.
