The House of Representatives wants Vice President Kashim Shettima to convene an emergency meeting of the board of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company to quickly revive the Gbarain Power Plant and improve the efficiency of the national grid.
The Vice President serves as the Chairman of the NDPHC board.
The house also requested the Managing Director of NDPHC, Joseph Ugbo, to appear before its committee on power and explain the condition of the power plant.
The Gbarain Power Plant is a gas turbine power plant designed to potentially be converted to a combined cycle gas turbine configuration. It is an operational power station generating at least 252 megawatts situated in Koroama, Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa State.
The house's decision followed the adoption of a motion on Thursday concerning the urgent public issue raised by Mr. Oboku Oforji, the member representing Yenagoa/Opokuma Federal Constituency, Bayelsa State.
During the discussion on the motion, the Peoples Democratic Party lawmaker noted that on November 30, 2020, the NDPHC lost the Power Control Module of the power plant due to a fire incident.
Oforji mentioned, “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 added, “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.”
The lawmaker also highlighted that given the close proximity of the Gbarain Power station to the Gbarain Ubie multi-million dollar central gas processing facility that transports over one billion, standard cubic feet of gas to the NLNG in Bonny, the 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 stated.
