Gbarain power plant: Reps ask VP Shettima to summon emergency meeting of NDPHC board

The House of Representatives has called on Vice President Kashim Shettima who is the Chairman of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) board, to summon an emergency meeting of the board for the urgent resuscitation of the Gbarain Power Plant to enhance the efficiency of the national grid.

The House also summoned the Managing Director of NDPHC, Mr Joseph Ugbo to appear before its Committee on Power to explain the state of the Gbarain power plant.

The Gbarain Power Plant is an open cycle gas turbine power plant built to accommodate future conversion to combined cycle gas turbine configuration. It is an operating power station of at least 252 megawatts located in Koroama, Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.

READ ALSO: NDPHC: Vandals destroy 6 transmission towers, kill one in Rivers

The resolution of the House followed the adoption of a motion on Thursday on the floor of the House on a matter of urgent public importance moved by the member representing Yenagoa/Opokuma Federal Constituency, Bayelsa State, Mr Oboku Oforji. Leading the debate on the motion, the Peoples Democratic Party lawmaker noted that on November 30, 2020, the NDPHC lost the Power Control Module of the Gbarain power plant to a fire incident.

In the words of Oforji, “The Bayelsa State Government offered to take some responsibilities of the NDPHC, since it was the most affected, particularly as the state-owned Niger Delta University derives its electricity supply from the station.

” He continued, “The State Government undertook the rehabilitation and restoration of power supply through the 60MVA,132/33KV power transformer which is currently supplying the Gbarain power station auxiliaries and the host communities through the 2×15 MVA33/11KV injection substation which was not functioning before the intervention.” He expressed displeasure that three years after, the NDPHC “Has not been able to live up to their responsibility by replacing the Power Control Module which allegedly has been lying redundant in one of its uncompleted stations. He redundant in one of its uncompleted stations.” The lawmaker further noted that cognizant that the Gbarain Power Station has a proximity of only 700m to the Gbarain_Ubie multi_million dollars central gas processing facility that transports over one billion, standard cubic feet of gas to the NLNG in Bonny, gas supply is not a constraint.

“One is prompted to doubt the competence of NDPHC to manage this power plant which has the potential to be the largest power station in the nation because of its comparative advantage over other power plants in its proximity to gas,” Oforji said, adding that “Reaching its potentials, Gbarain Power Station can conveniently power the whole Niger Delta region and beyond.

” The House, according to the lawmaker, is “Saddened that rather than resuscitate the power plant which was built with $400m and valued as of today at over $800m, the management of the NDPHC is proposing to designate the 252MW Open Cycle Power station as a construction site, thereby abandoning its primary responsibility of running it to the benefit of the state, the Niger Delta and the nation at large.

He further added that the Shell Petroleum Development Company has over 60MMsc of gas allocated to the plant which “Is not utilise due to the inability of the company to operate. This is a risk to the community in case of a leakage of the gas pipeline,” adding that “It is the intervention of the Bayelsa State Government that has kept the equipment intact, because they are supposed to be under controlled temperature; if not, they would have exploded.” Following the adoption of the motion, the House mandated the MD of NDPHC to appear before the Committee on Power “To shed light on the state of the Gbarain power plant.”