The Oyo State Government has declared its readiness to develop and fund four mini-grids meant to connect all transformers to the national grid and to solidify collaboration with the Transmission Company of Nigeria to build more feeder substations in the state.
The Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Seun Ashamu, made this known while hosting the leadership of the Nigeria Institution of Power Engineers (NIPE) and the Nigeria Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (NIEEE) in his office in Ibadan, the state capital, noting that the state government is willing to work with all stakeholders to develop the state’s energy sector.
According to Ashamu, the ministry is a new creation of the Governor Seyi Makinde-led administration with a mandate of ensuring energy security in the state and improving the availability of energy security on the one side and on the mineral resources side, ensuring that the state’s mineral resources are exploited in a responsible way.
He noted that the ministry consequently came up with one of the administration’s flagship projects, the Light-up Oyo Project, which is in two streams: the Conventional Public Lighting – about 300kms of public lighting being developed in the state, and the all-in-one Solar Street Lights, of which about 600 out of 1500 have been deployed so far across the state, targeted at night markets, palaces and hospitals.
Ashamu explained that the ministry, sensing how difficult sustainability might be, developed a grid extension programme aimed at connecting transformers, on which public funds had been expended but not energised, to the national grid and to collaborate with the Transmission Company of Nigeria to ensure more feeder substations in the state.
“We appreciate that the grid cannot get everywhere and adopted the mini grid system. The state government committed to funding 4 mini grids, all of which are being developed at this present moment in time and we’ve signed the agreement for an additional 40 to be developed in Oyo State with private equity and we’ve already commissioned one in Budo Are in Itesiwaju Local Government. The whole of the country has about 76 so we are already adding in excess of 50 percent of what Nigeria has.”
The Commissioner disclosed that the ministry has, with private support and external funding, connected about 22 Primary Healthcare Centers (PHCs) using solar energy and is in the process of getting approval for an additional 100 PHCs in the state, saying the government has signed an agreement with Shell Nigeria Gas to extend the gas pipeline infrastructure to Oyo State in order to ensure that the project is sustainable.
“The gas will power the public lighting that is outside of the Ibadan Metropolis and the elephant in the room is the IPP. As we know, to bring such an investment into the state requires some level of guarantee on the return of the investment. What we did as a state government was to put ourselves in the position to bridge that gap,“ Ashamu noted.
The Commissioner, however, urged the two institutions to join hands with the state government to develop the projects, stating the readiness of the government to work with resident engineers to develop local content policies that would improve the state’s energy sector.
Earlier, in their separate remarks, the chairman of the NIPE, Ibrahim Bello and the chairman of the NIEEE, Olayiwola Oyelade, stated that the purpose of their visit is to discuss the various developmental projects in the ministry and how the institutions could be of help to the effective implementation of the projects.
The duo appreciated Governor Seyi Makinde-led government for the laudable projects being implemented through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in the state.
PIAK
