19 February 2015, Abuja – The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, has issued two on-grid electricity generation licenses to KVK power Nigeria PVT Limited and Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria Plc to generate electricity from solar and gas respectively.
According to the commission, both companies would generate a total of 590 megawatts of electricity when fully operational.
It said KVT Power would be located in Yabo, Sokoto State, adding that the firm had met the requirements for the grant of 50MW on-grid generation with no objection received from the general public to their application.
“The licence has thereby been issued,” the commission said in a statement made available to our correspondent on Thursday in Abuja.
It noted that in the same vein, ALSCON’s application for an on-grid electricity generation in respect of a 360MW gas-fired plant at Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom and a permit in respect of a 180MW Captive Power Generation in the same location was approved and issued.
The approval to ALSCON, according to NERC, was after the review of an objection to the licence issuance by BFI Group was found not to be affecting the grant of the licence.
The Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi, congratulated the two licencees for successfully going through the process leading to the licence issuance.
He was quoted to have said that “Our system is to ensure that whoever is licenced is able to carry the construction to completion. What we can tell the licencee is that we will support you in any way we can as you make progress.”
Amadi said the commission would be available to assist the licencee when the need for Power Purchase Agreement arrives.
The Chairman, KVK Nigeria, Mr. Abubakar Cika, commended the reforms of the government in the power sector.
He stated that it was unfortunate that there had been a lot of negative comments about the sector, stressing that “people failed to realise that Rome was not built in one day.”
Cika noted that KVT was in collaboration with Indian partners.
ALSCON Managing Director, Dr. Oleg Suistunov, in his remarks, explained that it was difficult to generate power without a licence, adding that the licence was an important certificate that would enable investors move to the next stage of power generation.
“Now we can support our community, we can support Akwa Ibom in providing electricity,” he said.