RSG Targets 24hrs Power Supply Through IPP 

Rivers State Government is targeting a 24hrs power supply in all communities of the state, through Independent Power Project (IPP) before the end of the first tenure of Governor Siminalaye Fubara.

Disclosing this to aviation correspondents at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, the state Commissioner for Power, Solomon Abel Eke, said efforts have reached an advanced stage in ensuring that all communities in Rivers State have 24hrs steady power.

“The state is leveraging on the power policy of President Bola Tinubu unbundling of power generation, where states are at liberty to generate and distribute power.

“We are already in advanced stage to making sure that we have steady power, and since I assumed office as the Commissioner for Power, you will notice that the power situation in the state has improved.

“We are introducing new sources of power such as the renewable energy in the hinter land and rural communities, in such places where the National Grid have not get to, so as to be able to electrify those areas”, he said.

According to the Commissioner, a pilot project is going on in one of the communities in Etche, where the government is partnering with the community to provide a 24hrs power supply.

“We are making a study on some communities that don’t have electricity, and we want to replicate what we have in that pilot communities to other communities.

“We want to connect them through these renewable Public Private Partnership power project, like Solar and Waste-to-Power. Private investors are willing and are coming to invest, and government will give them all the assistance needed”, Eke said.

The Commissioner also disclosed the readiness of the Federal Government to provide steady power supply to rural communities in the country through renewable independent investors, which was the major area of discuss in the seminar he had earlier attended in Abuja, were other commissioners of power were in attendance.

He said Private investors in partnership with the Federal and State Government will provide power to health centers in the rural areas, to enable them preserve their working tools, and will give out the remaining excess they generated to the community they operate.

According to him, the Federal Government will invest 60%, while state will invest 30%, and the private investor will have 10%, adding that the profit and return on investment will also be based on what was invested.