05 April 2017, Sweetcrude, Calabar- The Cross River State government is partnering a South African firm, Industrial Project Services, IPS, to provide power to all the 18 local government areas in the state.
The plan is to build a two-megawatt power plant in each of the 18 local councils, according to the state governor, Prof. Ben Ayade.
“I have 18 local government areas and it is my commitment to ensure that every council and village has electricity under my watch,” the governor said in Calabar.
Disclosing that the plants would incorporate renewable and non-renewable energy sources, he also stated that the government was considering the option of utilising solar energy during the day and using gas-fired electricity at night.
“The radiation that we see from literature studies shows clearly that we have a high level of it (solar), thereby making the applicability of solar as an energy source in the northern and central part of the state very viable,” he said.
He added: “We are trying to have an industrial setting where we will actually be dealing with power supply and solar base systems to stranded communities, those that are disconnected from the national grid as well as some municipalities that are there.”
According to him, the plan by the state government would be the first commercial-scale solar power project in the entire South-South region of the country.
“This will be the first solar power project to be undertaken in South South Nigeria at a commercial scale.
“Once this succeeds, it means that we would have opened the door to the real big market of Africa which is Nigeria and if you have the Nigerian market, Africa will simply follow,” the governor asserted.
