By MATTHEW KALU, Umuahia

The management of Geometric Power Plant, Aba, says the company is now poised to provide reliable electricity to the commercial city.

Chairman of Geometric Power, Prof. Barth Nnaji, gave the assurance following the handover of Aba and Ariaria Districts known as the Aba ring-fenced area to Geometric Power in Abuja, on Wednesday, February 16, 2022.

The asset was handed over to Geometric by the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) through the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) at a brief event thus signaling an end to a nine-year legal tango between Geometric and Integrated Electricity Limited, a core investor in over right of ownership.

The legal battle had hampered the smooth take of the $500 million Geometric Power plant originally conceived to supply electricity to seven local government areas of Abia State.

However, the Federal Government in executing its privatization of the Power Holding Company, equally sold of the areas mapped out for Geometric to the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, thus making it difficult for Geometric to take off.

But the asset hand over means that the management of Geometric Power has formally acquired the Aba ring-fenced area for $26 million from Integrated Electricity Limited.

Speaking after the handover, Prof Nnaji said he was happy that the legal tussle was over, adding that his company was ready to provide reliable electricity to Aba.

Tracing the genesis of the nine-year legal battle, Nnaji said the Federal Government deliberately sold what rightfully belonged to his company to EEDC, hence his decision to challenge their action.

Trouble started in 2013 following the privatisation exercise after Interstate Electric acquired 60% of Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) from the BPE, pursuant to a share sale and purchase agreement.

Subsequently, the distribution licence was issued to EEDC over the five states in the South-east, which area also included previously and exclusively licensed Aba Ring-Fenced Area granted to Aba Power Limited (APL).

On this basis, EEDC became the licensee in respect of the Enugu Distribution Area while APL remained the exclusive licensee of the Aba Ring-fenced area, creating a conflict between the two licences.

The conflict was resolved in 2016 with the signing of an agreement carving out the ring-fence from Enugu DISCO for Geometric/Aba Power Limited.

“The other government sold what was rightfully ours to the people who acquired EEDC. So, they simply bundled Aba as part of EEDC. It was done knowingly. That is why we went to court, and we’re grateful this administration resolved the issues,” he said, adding “We’ve paid the acquisition price of $26 million.”

The former Minister of Power and Professor of Robotics narrated that his company has made serious investments and was ready to commence operations and give Aba residents uninterrupted power supply.

“We have made the necessary investments required to not have any issues in terms of reliability of power supply. So, we have invested about eight times the amount of the acquisition already.”

According to him, the company has built new substations and new power lines

to ensure no disruption in service delivery.

“We have built four brand new substations. We built new power lines, over 140 kilometres of new lines. We’ve built gas pipelines with twenty-seven kilometres to ensure that we have gas uninterrupted from Shell to us, etc.

“So, all these things we’ve done and the whole idea is to ensure that the network is what it is supposed to be,” he added.

The $500 million Geometric/Aba power plant has the capacity to produce and distribute about 141 megawatts (MW) of electricity in its first phase, with new distribution lines, four new sub-stations and three rehabilitated sub-stations.

Each plant is to produce 47 MW of power, supported by a 60 MVA per transformer. The power plant is to be powered by gas and so the company has built a gas plant at Shell company flow station at Owaza in Ukwa West Local Government Area of Abia State and laid a pipeline spanning 27 kilometres to the power plant at Osisioma.

During the brief asset handover ceremony, Director-General of BPE, Alex Okoh, expressed happiness over the resolution of the impasse between EEDC and Geometric, describing the development as “soothing and commendable.”

Okoh said that the NCP worked hard to see that the tussle was resolved and that the “right thing was done.”

“The bureau initiated a series of engagements with various stakeholders, which led to the signing of the agreement between Geometric Power and Integrated Electric Limited, the core investor,” he said.

According to him, the resolution of the issue would help Geometric to unlock the economic potentials of Aba.

“I am pleased to announce that we are handing over this asset to a tenacious, very, very tenacious investor who has made a firm commitment to transform the Aba Ring Fence area into a model electric supply franchise, providing quality, stable and appropriately priced electricity to consumers, thereby unlocking the significant economic benefits of this commercial and industrial hub of the regional and national economy.”