NDPHC constructs injection substation in Ondo polytechnic
Story from Abah ADAH
In furtherance of its intervention in the transmission and distribution segments of the Nigerian electricity value chain, the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) has begun the construction of a power distribution injection substation to boost electricity supply at Rufus Giwa Polytechnic Owo in Ondo State.
The project is the construction of 1×2.5MVA 33/11kV injection substation with associated 33kV/11kV & LT lines & installation of 3 no’s 500kVA distribution substation transformers.
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This is coming barely three after a 330/132/33kV transmission substation built by NDPHC in Lafia, the capital of Nasarawa State was commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Flagging off the project, Governor of Ondo State, Ogbeni Rotimi Akeredolu, having thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for the project, said the project, which would engender an upgrade from 2.5MVA to 7.5MVA, would be of immense benefit to the university community and the people in general.
In a statement, Akeredolu who was represented by his deputy, Mr Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa, acknowledged that the project had come to “address two critical areas of concern to our administration in this corridor”.
According to him, it was another landmark in the history of the Nigerian power sector towards fulfilling the promise by the APC government at inception to change the narrative through massive infrastructure development.
Outlining the benefits of the project to the higher educational institution, the governor said, “access to adequate electricity in educational facilities like Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, will certainly improve learning processes and the general condition. It will no doubt enable night academic activities, which are critical to academic pursuit. Also, the illumination of campus premises at night will aid security operations and discourage criminal activities. It will also increase economic activities on campus and its environs.
Earlier, NDPHC’s Executive Director, Networks, Engr. IfeOluwa Oyedele, had told the gathering of government and polytechnic officials, students, politicians, traditional rulers, and common citizens that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari was determined to take power to the people. He said one of the organs through which that was being achieved “is the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC).
“As you know, NDPHC is a company owned by the three tiers of government and we have, in our own little way, tried to affect the life of Nigerians in carrying out our mandate,” he noted.
While reiterating that “it is not the duty of NDPHC to do these things as the company’s primary mandate is to generate electricity”, Oyedele explained, however, that the company intervenes because those with the mandate to provide transmission and distribution services “do not have the capacities to extend power supply to all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria.
“That is why although we are basically a generation company, we provide transmission and distribution services because we know that after generating electricity, it must get to end-users to become meaningful.”
“So far, NDPHC has constructed and commissioned over 350 Injection Substations with a combined capacity of about 3,540MW across the length and breadth of the country. It has further constructed about 2,600km of 11KV and 4600km of 33kV distribution lines for improving access to electricity and quality of power supply to consumers,” he said.
Earlier in his welcome address, Rector of the polytechnic, Mr Gani Ogundahunsi, had enthused that the “project is going to be of massive help to us because we have been spending so much on diesel.
“We are extremely grateful to the Executive Director, Networks of NDPHC, Engr. Ife Oyedele who is one of us and to the Federal Government of Nigeria for putting this kind of agency in place that will always help to alleviate this kind of suffering that many of our educational institutions are going through.”
