Shiroro seeks BPE, NERC approval for 300MW solar plant

SHIRORO Hydroelectric Power Station has sought approval from Bureau of Public Enterprise, BPE, and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, for the construction of a 300 megawatts solar power plant.
The new plant will be built within the premises of the existing Shiroro plant which the Federal Government concessioned to North South Power Company, NSP, Limited on November 1, 2013.
The firm’s Chief Technical Officer, Mr. Roland Lwiindi, who noted this during a visit by the Post Privatisation Monitoring Team of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, that was on a monitoring exercise at the power station in Shiroro, Niger State, added that should the Federal Government give the company the go ahead to establish the plant, its first phase would come on line in 2017.
He said, “We have completed our feasibility study, and we are planning to write the relevant authorities for permission to build a solar plant that will last for 20 years.
“When it is completed, it is either we continue to run it or the Federal Government buys it from us.”
He added that, “It will be the largest of such project in Africa and we will link the operation with hydro so that if anything happens to the hydro the solar picks up. The land is the technical issue that will mitigate us since we have the transmission infrastructure and the human resource is also there.”
Speaking during the monitoring visit, the leader of the delegation, who is also the Assistant Director, General Counsel at BPE, Mr. Abdullahi Shaibu, told the company that although the delegation would highlight the request in its report to the management, the BPE cannot take decision on the issue until the the Federal Government constitutes its National Council on Privatisation (NCP) which can act on the request.