FG hands over 700MW Zungeru power plant to Mainstream Energy

The national grid is set for boost as the federal government has handed over the $1.3 billion Zungeru Power Plant to Mainstream Energy Solutions Limited.

Conducting Journalists around the facility Wednesday in Zungeru, the Executive Director of Corporate Services, Usman Mohammed Umar,  said: “We have demonstrated capacity in how we have run Kianji and Jebba in the last 10 years. In the next few days, we will begin operations here. An official commission will be done by President Bola Tinubu in due course.

“We are calling on the government to allow the private sector to take up the entire power sector space just as we have seen with the telecom sector to enable players to add value to the sector.”

Zungeru, which costs approximately $1.3 billion, is reportedly the largest power project completed in Nigeria over the past decade will increase grid-connected electricity from the current 12,200 megawatts to about 13,000MW and move the number of power plants on the grid to 27.

Following the handover, Nigeria’s MELS has become the largest hydropower company in Africa with above 2,000MW.

The Acting Director General of BPE, Ignatius Ayewoh, while presenting the certificate to MESL, said under the concession agreement, the federal government was required to hand over the hydropower plant to the concessionaire not later than 10 business days from the date of payment of 50 percent of the commencement fees following which the transition plan as set out in schedule shall apply.

He said the addition of 700MW of clean energy remained critical for Nigeria as part of measures to deal with the environmental impacts of burning fossil fuel, adding that the development would take away the challenges associated with gas plants.