Federal Government of Nigeria has commissioned a 300KWp Solar PV pilot project in Kainji, Niger State to support President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda to provide adequate, reliable and quality electricity to businesses and households in the country.
Gatekeepers News reports that the project is expected to increase power generation capacity, lower electricity costs and foster enhanced collaboration between the main concessionaire, Mainstream Energy Solution, and its Chinese partner, HEDC in the renewable energy field.
During the commissioning of the project, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, the Minister of Power, stated that the Power Ministry’s objective is to meet power demand by ensuring improved distribution and transmission infrastructure to minimize technical and commercial losses, closing the metering gap and resolving the liquidity, power theft and vandalism challenges. He also emphasized the need for Nigerians and the different communities where the facilities are located to protect them from theft and destruction of power infrastructure.
The project comes with 675KWh Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), which is an integral part of the extension of 1G3 and 1G4 under the rehabilitation of the 1G9 in Kainji HPP project. The Minister also revealed that efforts have begun to bridge metering gaps in the country.
Presently, there are about 12 million electricity users, but only about five million are metered. The Presidential Mass Metering Initiative, which the Minister chairs, is working assiduously on this initiative to bridge the metering gap.
The Managing Director of Mainstream Energy Solution, Engineer Lamu Audu, said that the project is in line with the National Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency policy of the Federal government, which sets out the blueprint to increasing the country’s renewable energy development by 2030.
He also revealed that the plan is at an advanced stage to build a 450MWp and 150MWp Solar PV at Kainji and Jebba Hydro Power Plants (HPPs).
Audu called on the government to continue to provide the enabling environment that would attract more funding from private investors.
The Minister gave the government’s assurance to continue to provide such an environment for the private sector to leverage opportunities inherent in government policies, incentives, and regulations for sustainable power supply for economic development and improvement of the standard of living of Nigerians, especially rural dwellers.
