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Between Aba, the Enyimba City and Nnewi in Anambra State, a study once revealed, there are about 6,000 small-scale producers. Together, they constitute the soul of the widely admired eastern industry, built on individual effort and small-scale holdings. Such producers range from shoemakers, fashion designers, furniture makers, metal fabricators, motor/motorcycle/bicycle spare parts manufacturers, water purifiers and bottlers, among others.

While Aba has a preponderance of shoe and clothes makers, Nnewi leads in the manufacture of spares. Both, however, lack the infrastructure to sustain the operations of their hardworking, never-say-die small-holder producers. But comparatively, that is, in terms of infrastructure, Aba has a little edge.

Long before Gas Links began to pipe industrial gas to the industrial estates in Ikeja and Isolo in Lagos, the Okpara Administration in the then Eastern Region had got Shell Petroleum to build a gas pipeline to the industrial yard of Osisioma and environs in the Enyimba City. That formed part of the infrastructure that was to make eastern Nigeria the fastest growing economy in the world as at 1963. But then the war came and, as they say, everything went with the wind.

However, the pipeline from Shell Producing's major oil/gas fields in the Niger Delta is still intact and that is part of the attraction for Professor Bart Nnaji's Geometric Power Ltd, an electric power company that is building a 105MW model power plant in Aba for the use of industries and commercial/domestic consumers in the Enyimba City.

Nnaji, a professor of Industrial Engineering and Robotics has a track record in power generation in Nigeria. His debut in this sector was in the 15 MW Abuja Power Project built by Geometric Power Renatech Ltd., a special purpose vehicle (spv), of which he was chairman. The SPV provided the national headquarters of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Aso Rock, the International Conference Centre and other places with uninterrupted electricity till last March when the project ended.

In this interview conducted shortly after the first Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) meeting of stakeholders in the Aba Power Project last Saturday in Aba, Abia State, Nnaji, a former Secretary of Science and Technology, speaks on the significance of the project for the country's quest for stable power supply.

BY FELIX ABUGU

Geometric Power Ltd., of which you are chairman, is building an independent thermal plant in Aba, Abia State. How did it all come about?
The inspiration to establish an independent Power plant for Aba came to me when we were setting up the Abuja Power Plant. I began to think that really this country could not meet its power needs and that there was a need to have a model not driven purely by the government. This is because government cannot possibly find the money. Such a model should be driven by private investment. But that model has to be such that it should be attractive to the private sector, the consumer and all the people who would be involved in the project.

I began to think of supplying directly to consumers. This would entail being able to reachthe consumers directly with power supply. It would also entail collecting revenue directly from them. Aba became the place that made a lot of sense to me.

Why did you choose Aba?
There were two critical elements. One is the source of fuel which is gas in this case. Aba happens to be a place with gas supply. The type of power consumers available in the city was the second element. Of course, you know that Aba has a lot of industries. It also has the industrial entrepreneurs that really want to expand and advance their businesses. We looked at Aba as a possible place for economic development of that whole area. We believe that by having the power infrastructure in place, it would stimulate fundamental development in the whole area.

What steps did you take to actualise this dream?
The first step we took actually brought us face to face with a major obstacle. I first thought of an ideal situation. But to move from nothing to achieve that ideal situation placed obstacles on the way. The first major obstacle at the beginning was the National Electric Power Authority, which was formerly a monopoly in the power sector. Because it was a monopoly, as a private investor, you are barred by law from generating your own power supply and sell to the public. You needed to have special permission to do it especially since the power reform law was gradually being developed. We envisioned that by the time we start with construction work at the site, the power reform law would have been passed into law by the National Assembly.

This is essentially what has happened, thereby allowing independent power producers to establish their own power plants and supply power to eligible customers. So we applied to the Federal Government and we were granted that permission to build a power plant and supply electricity directly to the consumers being the industries, residential homes and commercial outfits in the city.

What do you intend to do after completing the Aba project. Will you go the whole hog...?
Well, there are possibilities for expansion. You can predict that a number of industries would begin to move down to Aba because you now have nearly 100 percent uninterrupted power supply. We anticipate an expansion in terms of industries, residential homes and commercial outfits because of stable power. So we expect that we would expand. Secondly, Geometric Power itself is fundamentally a power plant developer. So we anticipate that we should be able to go to some other places to build power plants provided that these two basic elements that I talked about are there. We could also establish a power plant anywhere in the country that has potential eligible consumers but without the availability of gas provided we could be permitted to bring the gas pipeline there.

In what sense is the Aba Power project a model?
It is a model for the entire country. In fact, we are already getting a lot of support from the World Bank. The World Bank being a development bank wants to copy what we are doing for other places. Actually it is the International Finance Corporation (IFC) which is the private sector arm of the World bank that is interested in this project. They want to use this project as a way of developing the power sector in developing countries. They are using us as a model for the rest of the developing world.

When you have a model, you want to see whether it would work or not, and whether there are areas that could be fine-tuned to ensure the project is actualised. You can imagine that Kaduna could be taken over by a power company that could build a power plant to supply to the city. Fundamentally, what consumers want is reliable high quality power in the end, especially if the government is not providing the money. Under the present arrangement, what is also needed is a reliable power supply with cost that would be regulated by the government.

I mean, is it model in terms of the concept or in terms of the kind of plant and equipment that is going to be put in place, or both?
No, it is not a model in terms of the plant and equipment. It is a model in terms of the structure of how plant delivers power to the people, especially in Nigeria where we have had a monopoly. We are talking about having some private transmission and distribution lines going directly to the industries. That is a new model because we have to build the transmission and distribution lines ourselves. We would have to build sub-stations ourselves. We are also going to lease transmission facilities from NEPA; that is new and very different. So in terms of model that is the model we are talking about.

How would you harmonise your operations with those of NEPA, in terms of the kind of customers that are your main target?
Customers who are hooked on to our power supply would be taken out of NEPA supply. NEPA would no longer operate within the zone where we are operating. This is another reason why it is a model because it is not going to be part of the national grid. An important part of this model is to fence off an area and give it to a company to run on a concession arrangement basis. Because you are taking out an area that could have relied on power from the national grid, you are essentially providing more power from NEPA, to the rest of the population in the country. Imagine having Lagos, Port-Harcourt and others concessioned to private power companies, then you would have more power supplied to the rest of the population in the country. This would enhance stable power supply in the country.

What is the difference between what you did at Abuja, what the Rivers or Akwa Ibom State Government is reported to be doing and what you are presently doing?
What we did at Abuja, is closer to what the Rivers State Government is doing. But what we are doing now is quite different from what the Rivers State Government is doing in the sense that the state government is not taking over either the whole Rivers State or Port-Harcourt for the purpose of supplying power. The management of that is quite tremendous especially in the area of distribution. It is not really the power plant. The power plant is easier to deal with. But dealing with distribution of power requires tremendous management. And that is where NEPA has also failed. Even the distribution lines have to be refurbished. Some of them are 6.6 KVA lines for stability of power but we need 11 KVA lines for stability of power. Other problems that could occur in the distribution of power include power theft and even sabotage by staff, which can happen when the government is operating something.

Don't you think getting involved in generation, transmission and distribution would be too cumbersome for your company alone to handle?
I want you to consider a much more miniaturised version of electric power supply which is the generator in your house. When you have a generator in your house, you are involved in generation, transmission and distribution. An expanded version of it is the power we would generate for the city. But if we decide to take on the whole country it would then become too cumbersome for us. You need proper management for that. No, it is not a problem to provide power for just a city. It could become a problem if you have a much larger area to cover.

What about the human resources you need to embark on this project?
We already have some of the personnel required. But they need to be further trained in efficient management. But we are really going to operate the power plant itself on operational maintenance contract. So, we are going to have an operational maintenance company that would also install the equipment. For distribution, we are also going to get people who have a lot of expertise in management of distribution facilities to work with us at the beginning. Then ultimately we are going to learn. We have two companies involved in this project. One is Geometric Power Ltd, which would be the power producer and Aba Power Ltd., which would be the power distributor. Aba Power Ltd. would be managed by a Managing Director that would run the outfit based on the experience that company had in running distribution facilities in developing countries.

Can you expatiate on the support you are getting from the World Bank for this project?
Yes, we have a lot of support in the sense that the syndicator of our funding is the IFC. They co-supported us in bringing in the foreign company that did the technical, commercial and environmental due diligence on our project. They actually paid the company that did the financial and legal due diligence on the project. These are very critical areas in developing a project of this nature.

Furthermore, they are advising the government to look at what we are doing to facilitate how power distribution could be improved in the whole of Nigeria. Again that is another sense in which this project is a model.

How would you describe the EIA meeting in Aba over the project?
It showed me that the people are enthusiastic about the project. Local government chairmen in Aba area, Ezes, academics, industrialists, youth groups, all categories of people, were unanimous in their approval of the project. They are convinced that we are prepared to be a socially responsible company, as indeed we are, because part of our plan is also to try and raise manpower within the locality to work for the company. We have taken note of the suggestions that various experts at the meeting made and will take steps to rectify any areas of defect in our EIA report. But overall, I am satisfied that the communities where the plant will be located see it as a beneficial investment by Geometric Power.