By Giwa SHILE
Gov. Godwin Obaseki of Edo on Wednesday inspected progress of work and equipment at the 55 Megawatts CCETC-Ossiomo Power plant facility in the state.
The plant is located at Ologbo, on Benin-Sapelr road axis of the state.
Addressing newsmen after the inspection, Obaseki said when the plant was completed, more electricity would be provided for distribution in the state.
He said the construction of transmission lines to deliver electricity from the site to the city centre would soon commence, as the first set of equipment for the project would arrive from China in few weeks time.
“We believe that before the end of the first quarter of the year, the first 5MW will be delivered to light up government offices and streets within the Sapele Road corridor of Benin City,” he said.
He said that “to ease distribution of the power, a substation will be set up around Kings Square, which will power streets in the city”.
“We are concluding transaction to light up 200 Kilometres of our streets across the city.
“When the plant is completed, it will free up some electricity for the state. We believe that if the megawatts produced increase, the distribution company will have more power to distribute to other cities in the state,” the governor said.
He added that Edo people would benefit from the power supply as there was an arrangement to drop power in certain processing centres where artisans could move into and do their businesses with the assurance of steady power supply.
Director, CCETC -Ossiomo Power Plant, Dr. Uwa Igiehon, said the power plant was a joint venture between a Chinese Company, CCETC Clean Energy and Ossiomo Power Company to build the 55 Megawatts plant in the state.
Igiehon, said the project started in August 2018 and would be delivered in the next four to five months.
“We will be using natural gas from a 50-metre gas pipeline close to the site.
“The project will be in phases with the first phase of 5 megawatts to be delivered to the state government,” he said.
