In an interview with journalists, Delta State Energy Commissioner Charles Emetulu speaks on a major controversial issue in his ministry, the Independent Power Project. Excerpts:
SIR we want you to throw more light on the IPP project.
Why IPP? Why all the noise about IPP??
SIR, as you are aware, Chief E.K. Clark linked the project’s non-completion to the Hon. Speaker, whom he accused of pocketing the money meant for it
Look, if anybody wants to hang the Speaker, they should look for something else; definitely not the IPP which is very much on course. I do not subscribe to personal attacks on a matter that concerns a corporate body. DAVNOTCH is a duly registered company and to the best of my knowledge the Speaker has divested from the company. Our dealings as a government is with DAVNOTCH and not with the Speaker. If you guys must ask questions therefore, apart from government, you should be asking the company DAVNOTCH that has a known address and a management. Having said that, the project itself is on course as we have taken delivery of virtually all equipment needed for it. The little problem of access road is being addressed and we expect the contractor to go back to site very soon.
What could be the motive of Chief Clark when he made such serious allegations against the Speaker?
Well I wouldn’t know anything about motive. But let me just say this: In Delta there is too much attack on persons under whatever guise. I recall that because of politics some prominent Deltans said the Uduaghan administration was not developing an airport. Now, because it was bad news laced with falsehood it gained ground. Today Deltans know better as there is indeed an airport in full swing and fully functional on ground. You see, if we are not building an IPP, why did the Federal Government issue us a licence? If we were not building an IPP, why did the Federal Ministry of Environment pay a visit to the site? What I can tell you is that the project will be realized. All the equipment are in Oghara and soon work will resume.
Why the delay in completion of the project?
A lot of factors have combined to cause delay. We had issues with a community where this administration thought it best to site the project. After initially agreeing to allow the project, the community turned round to refuse the siting of it there. Talking of community problems, you will agree that it is a problem that has set us back greatly as a state. In any case, the project was relocated to its present site. All of these took quite sometime because government kept trying to reach common ground with the said community. Again, by the time we moved to the new site, Rolls Royce had moved up to Phase IV of the turbines from the Phase III model that was on board when the state government conceptualised the project. For those who are engineers, they would understand that this meant changes in such things as engineering drawings and designs, Environmental Impact Assessment and all of that. These take time.
You also have to understand that, we didn’t just walk into Rolls Royce to pick up turbines. The turbines had to be ordered, paid for and manufactured from scratch for the Delta State Government. These also take time. When the equipment finally arrived at Onne Port in Rivers State, they also spent sometime there because of issues of access roads. The joyous thing for me is that we have crossed these hurdles and we should be delivering the project to Deltans soon. The turbines are Rolls Royce Trent Dual Fuel 64 mega watts and they are two in number with combined capacity of 128 mega watts. Their Serial Numbers if you care are: 921028090 and 921027010.
You see, Delta houses 3 power plants with combined installed capacity of 1882 megawatts. The power need of the state is around 1010 mega watts but we get far less than 120 megawatts on a daily basis hence the state government thought of augmenting through the IPP. Let me just add here too that delays occur with projects for varying reasons. For instance, the long talked about Asaba Step-Down is today on course via the NIPP. I’m sure you know for how long this has remained like a dream. It will be at 270mega watts installed capacity when completed.
How much was budgeted for the project and when was it contracted out?
The project was contracted out in June 2009 at a cost of N23.2 billion. Of this amount we’ve spent about N15 billion.
What is your assessment of the company handling the IPP project?
I will say that I’m okay with DAVNOTCH. I have no reason so far to doubt their capability. There is a consultant for the project and we’ve not received any report from the consultant to create doubts in our minds. Again DAVNOTCH handles a few other things for us, like our street lights n Asaba and environ and these they’ve handled well. I can assure you that if we have cause to sanction the company, we will do so promptly.
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