Cross River to generate 50Mw from power plants, says Ayade

Emmanuel Alfred

The Cross River state Governor in Nigeria, His Excellency, Sen Prof Ben Ayade says that a combined power generation from the two power plants built by his administration will give the State about 50 megawatts of electricity that will guarantee Calabar, the capital, steady power supply independent of the national grid.

The two power plants are situated at the Parliamentary Extension area of the capital and at Adiabo, an outskirts of the capital.

Speaking during a facility tour of the 26 megawatts gas-fired power plants, which construction is nearing completion, at Adiabo, Sen Ayade said he was delighted that “we have less than seven kilometers where we are going to do hot tapping of the gas with an eight inch pipe and bring it across to our pipeline”

According to him, “the consistent generation of 26 megawatt from here combined with the one at Parliamentary Extension will give Cross River State almost 50mw of steady power, making Calabar the first city to be powered from an independent State source without falling back to the national grid”

Ayade disclosed that the power plant which is a diesel power plant was being converted to gas-fired to ensure about seventy percent reduction in the cost of combustion of the turbines.

Commending Skippars, the main contractors handling the Adiabo plant for a job well done and for involving local contractors in the project, he said he was happy the project was over ninety percent completed with first firing demostration scheduled for next month.

Ayade then charged Adiabo, the host community “to realize that this project is your own, this project is for your own good”

The Governor later inspected the pylon and piles factory at Akamkpa local Government Area of the State established by his administration to produce vibrated electric cables.

He described the factory “as our asset where we produce all the facilities that support power generation”