The Senate Joint Committee on Gas and Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy on Monday queried the Ministry of Power over the spending of N46 million on diesel daily to power the Kaduna Power Plant.
The panel also demanded for the suspension of the planned commissioning of the 215 Megawatts Kaduna Power Plant over inconsistencies in the contract implementation.
At the one-day investigative hearing on: “Urgent need to save the 215 MW Kaduna Power Plant,” the lawmakers were surprised to know that the cost would have been cheaper if it is run on gas.
The lawmakers expressed dissatisfaction with the submission of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Power, Louis Edozie, who defended the change of the parameters of the plant from a gas powered plant to diesel powered plant.
Representatives of the Ministry of Power, led by the Permanent Secretary, had told the Committee that the Ministry plans to commission one of the eight units in the plant in January and the unit would run on diesel.
In his presentation before the Joint Committees, the Chairman of GreenVille LNG, Eddy Van Den Broeke, who led his team to address the committee, explained that the company had a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kaduna Gas Plant to build storage facilities for the plant at no cost.
Broeke also stated that while the plant would produce a kilowatt of electricity at N79, if run on diesel, it will produce the same kilowatt of power at N37.
He said his company had, as a result of the MOU it signed with the power plant, invested $400 million on its gas plant in Roumuji, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
He said: “In 2014 when the parametres were signed, it was agreed that LNG is most competitive.
“We have invested $400 million, after which people in the Ministry decided to change the parametres.
“It will cost $200 million more to use AGO (diesel) because there is no other fuel available that can replace LNG and GreenVille.
“I would want the ministry to give me one cent of response on this change of theory.”
Broeke said apart from the functional gas plant, Greenville already imported 250 trucks meant to evacuate gas to the power plant before the change of parameters by the Ministry.
The Committee was told that the Ministry decided to change the parametres of the plant from gas, which was the original design, to diesel, which will eventually jerk up the cost of power at the plant.
Co-Chairman of the Joint Committee, Senator Albert Bassey, told Edozie to inform the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, that the Senate has put a stop to the planned commissioning, adding: “I feel very disappointed.
“Please tell your Minister to stop the process of commissioning because the project cannot be ready even by mid-next year.
“We are insisting that it will be cheaper to run the plant with gas and gas is environmentally friendly.
“Let your Minister know we cannot be taken for granted.”
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