NERC HANDS OVER EMBEDDED POWER GENERATING LICENSE TO BAUCHI STATE

By Amadin Uyi

The Chairman of The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission NERC Mr Sam Amadi has handed over the operational license of the Yankari Power Company of Nigeria’s to the Bauchi State Governor, Isa Yuguda.
 

The ceremony took place earlier today at the NERC conference room in Abuja and Mr Amadi explained that the license which is an embedded license will help the state solve its electricity problems in the future and guarantee residents and businesses domiciled in Bauchi state, stable electricity.

He also said that he wants other state governors and private companies to emulate the steps taken by the Bauchi state government in delving into power generation and revealed that the project can be a model for others to follow.

Mr Amadi said that NERC is satisfied with environmental issues around the partly owned state power plant and revealed to Journalists and all those present that the Bauchi state government met with all the requirements issued them by the regulatory commission.

He also maintains that he thinks the power generation project is the future of electricity generation in the country, till a time when more power can be produced by the federal government.

NERC’s Commissioner for Legal Licenses and Enforcement Mr Stephen Azinge while giving a brief of the company revealed that the Yankari Power Company Limited submitted on March the 8^th 2012, an application for an embedded electricity generation license in respect of a 35MW gas fired Independent Power Project IPP located in Gudun Industrial Layout of Bauchi state. 

He said that the expected power to be generated would upon generation be evacuated into the Jos Electricity Distribution Company Network. Both parties had already entered a Memorandum of Understanding which would provide the framework for the collaboration between the parties for the connection of the IPP to the Distribution Network.

Mr Azinge revealed that upon the fulfillment of requirements by NERC as contained in the NERC regulations for Application for Licenses, the commission granted Yankari Power Company an embedded Electricity generation license and the company followed suit by paying its requisite license fee.

Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi state expressed his delight that the power plant was being finally handed over to the state. He said that government’s drive to create wealth and Jobs cannot be realized until there is adequate power. He commended the Federal government for its efforts in trying to improve the power sector and disclosed that he believes results are already evident. Mr Yuguda said he is glad that Bauchi is the first state to get a power generating license and revealed that the state aims to up its generation capacity to 1000MW in the near future. He informed all those present that Bauchi state has complied with every regulation given by NERC and commended the NERC staff for being very dedicated and professional. He further disclosed that NERC staffs involved in the negotiations were not only professional but refused to cut corners.

Mr Yuguda said that the state will finish the construction of the first phase of the power plant in 3 months and will contribute to the Federal Government’s project to improve power in the shortest possible time.

He lauded NERC for opening opportunities for small holder power generation and revealed that China followed this same path in resolving its power shortage issues. He added that if other states emulate Bauchi, they will assist the country in power generation and power shortages will be a thing of the past.

 

Mr Yuguda disclosed that the NERC has set an example for other government agencies and parastatals to follow. He disclosed that the power generating plant was designed to generate about 130MW of electricity at a construction cost of $200M which is about 34 billion naira. The funding for the plant which is a gas fired plant but can also run on crude oil and diesel will be sourced from the Federal Government’s 1.3Billion dollars loan facility from the China NEXIM bank.

He also revealed that counterpart funding will be obtained from the Bank of industry and hopes that available gas discovered in the Yankari basin with estimated reserves of about 30 billion cubic feet of gas will serve as ready fuel for the plant in the future.

NERC PRESS RELEASE: CHINESE DELEGATION DECLARES INTEREST TO INVEST IN POWER

…Says the Commission is a Steadfast Umpire.

The management of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission today hosted Chinese Trade and Investment delegation alongside their Nigerian partners. 

The delegation comprised of technicians, who specialize in large scale design, manufacturing and installation of electrical equipments.

The Leader of the delegation, Yurin Qrian Jing of Jamet Cooperation, expressed the group’s desire to share their experience with China’s power development.

He stated that power is the foundation of economic development, noting that this is the moment to participate in power development in Nigeria. According to him, they are prepared to us their experience and advanced technology to support the development of Nigeria’s power industry.

“We have come to seek co-operation and offer our experience”, he said.

Another member of the team and Vice General Manager, China Shipping Industry Corporation, Liu Wen Lin, revealed that the corporation was into large scale manufacturing of electrical equipments for the power sector, with partners that are experts in nuclear power generation.

The group made a presentation of a prepaid meter that they said meets Nigeria’s specification and declared their readiness to collaborate in both the manufacturing and installation of meters, adding that the Commission has been most proactive in providing guidelines for metering codes and their specifications.

The Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Sam Amadi, in his response to the delegation, reiterated the fact that there is substantial space for expansion in the Nigerian power market and welcomed their commitment to join in.

He further advised them to apply for a meter license through the Commission’s website so that they could certified as manufacturers, vendors and if they meet the required criteria developed by the Commission, they can be assured of space in the reformed sector.

He stated that, “The regulator is here to make rules for the electricity market, while making the market hospitable for business”.

Dr. Usman Abba Arabi - Head, Public Affairs Department

NIGERIA WILL HARNESS NUCLEAR ENERGY FOR DEVELOPMENT - JONATHAN

The Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, has reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to the global fight against the threat of nuclear terrorism, but said that Nigeria, under his leadership, will continue to pursue efforts to harness nuclear energy and technology for socio-economic development.

In his statement to the third Global Security Summit which opened at The Hague in the Netherlands on Monday, President Jonathan upheld the view that international and regional cooperation efforts should be based on the principle of maintaining a balance between nuclear non-proliferation obligations and the inalienable right of States to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy for development purposes.

“While this is important, we would also like to draw attention to the need to maintain the highest standards of nuclear safety and security in establishing peaceful nuclear facilities,” the President said.

He told the gathering that in keeping with Nigeria’s commitment to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and the peaceful use of nuclear technology, the Federal Government had submitted an executive bill to the National Assembly to accommodate the country’s obligations under international treaties on nuclear safety and security.

“Nigeria accords high priority to all global efforts towards ending the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, including nuclear weapons. To this end, Nigeria has since the last Summit in Seoul, strengthened the legal framework for fighting terrorism through the adoption in 2013, of an amendment to its Terrorism (Prevention) Act, thus ensuring the implementation of more robust counter-terrorism measures.

“Nigeria’s ratification of some international treaties and conventions in the realm of nuclear safety, security and safeguards has necessitated the review of the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority Act resulting in the recent decision of the Government to submit a new Bill to Parliament for consideration and passage into law in order to accommodate our obligations under these instruments.

“The instruments include the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials and its amended version of 2005, the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism. The intention of the bill is to ensure the fulfilment of Nigeria’s international and national Nuclear Safety, Security, Safeguards and radiation protection obligations, by domesticating the international treaties. The bill is presently awaiting passage by the National Assembly.

“Furthermore, as part of the outcome of the second Nuclear Security Summit held in Seoul, South Korea in 2010, States Parties were urged on voluntary basis, to embark on the process of converting their reactors from the use of Highly Enriched Uranium to Lowly Enriched Uranium. Consequently, Nigeria is working in collaboration with the United States of America and China for the conversion of Nigeria’s limited stock of Highly Enriched Uranium used in its research reactor to Lowly Enriched Uranium,” President Jonathan said.

The Nigerian President stressed that the main objectives of the Nuclear Security Summit was to reduce the amount of dangerous nuclear materials in the world by preventing materials that could be used to produce nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of terrorists and unauthorised non-state actors.

He reiterated Nigeria’s support for the immediate commencement and early conclusion of negotiations on a “non-discriminatory, multi-lateral and internationally and effectively verifiable treaty banning the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons”.

President Jonathan also commended the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki Moon for establishing a Group of Governmental Experts which will begin work in Geneva next week on the proposal.

“Nigeria shares the view that fewer nuclear weapons translate into more nuclear security while at the same time reducing the risk of proliferation.

“But it is even more important that States, as represented at this Summit, demonstrate the necessary political will to embark on the path towards the ultimate goal of total and complete nuclear disarmament under strict and effective international control,” Jonathan concluded.

He thanked the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mr Mark Rutte, for hosting the summit and commended President Barack Obama, who was present at the opening ceremony, “for his continued leadership of this important project”.

Other world leaders participating in the summit include President Xi Jinping of China, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President Francois Hollande of France, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, the President of South Korea, Ms Park Geun-hye and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr Ban Ki Moon.

(From the Federal Ministry of Information)

G7 COUNTRIES SNUB PUTIN AND REFUSE TO ATTEND PLANNED G8 SUMMIT IN RUSSIA

 

Amid fears of further Russian military moves in Ukraine, G7 meets in The Hague without Russia for the first time since 1998

Western countries and Japan have suspended their 16-year collaboration with Russia in the G8 group in response to the annexation of Crimea and have threatened sweeping sanctions in the event of any Russian military moves in the region.

The move, a clear and deliberate break from the post-Soviet status quo, was intended to underline Russian isolation. Leaders from the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan met in The Hague as the G7 for the first time since Russian was brought into the group in 1998 to seal east-west co-operation and lay the cold war to rest.

The G7 leaders issued a joint statement, under the title of the Hague Declaration,saying they would not attend a planned G8 summit in Sochi in June but would instead convene without Russia in Brussels. The group's foreign ministers would also boycott a planned G8 meeting in Moscow in April. The declaration said Russia's actions were not consistent with the "shared beliefs and shared responsibilities" that had made the formation of the G8 possible.

As Russian troops appeared to mass on Ukraine's eastern border, the G7 statement hinted at much broader sanctions if Russia made further expansionist moves.

"We remain ready to intensify actions including co-ordinated sectoral sanctions that will have an increasingly significant impact on the Russian economy, if Russia continues to escalate this situation," the statement said.

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, shrugged off the loss of G8 membership as being inconsequential. "The G8 is an informal club, with no formal membership, so no one can be expelled from it. If our western partners believe that such format is no longer needed, so be it. We aren't clinging for that format and we won't see a big problem if there are no such meetings for a year, or a year-and-half," said Lavrov after his first meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Deshchytsia, at the margins of the global Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, Netherlands.

The Ukrainian embassy in The Hague said in its account of the meeting: "Lavrov stressed that Russia has no intention of using military force in the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine. The two sides agreed to hold emergency consultations at the level of the ministries of foreign affairs and the ministries of defence of both countries in the case of exacerbation of the situation."

Lavrov said little about the meeting but confirmed he had agreed to maintain contacts with the Kiev government.

Before arriving in The Hague, David Cameron has said that Britain and its Nato allies would help bolster the defences of the alliance's Baltic members, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, who have Russian minorities and which fear destabilisation by Moscow.

Obama also sought to deepen Russian isolation in a meeting in The Hague with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in which he asked that Beijing at least maintain its stance of neutrality in the stand-off and continue to reaffirm its commitment to the rule of international law and non-interference in the affairs of sovereign states.

US officials acknowledged that Xi had given little by way of formal response to the request, but the Chinese leader appeared to go out of his way to emphasise a warm and personal relationship with Barack Obama, heaping praise on the US president's wife and daughters who have just visited China and jokingly conveyed Michelle Obama's greetings to her husband.

The US deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, stressed that the crisis was not a return to the cold war, because this time Moscow stood virtually alone. "The fact is Russia is leading no bloc of countries. There's no ideological entity, like communism, that Russia is leading that has global appeal," Rhodes said. "There's no bloc of nations, like the Warsaw Pact, that they're leading. They're isolated in what they're doing in Ukraine. And I think that's very much the message that we want to send at the G7, with the EU, with Nato over the course of the next several days."

Britain's foreign secretary, William Hague, described the winding up of the G8 as a "huge blow" adding that Obama had made it clear that "it will then be hard to revive that in the immediate future".

Hague insisted that Britain would play a wholehearted part in the tightening of sanctions if the crisis escalated, despite potential economic costs to the UK.

He said tougher sanctions would mean that "many countries bear the cost of that in many ways" but "we have to be prepared to do that".

"Every country would have to do what is necessary if more far-reaching sanctions were applied, accepting that that would affect different economies in different ways," he said. "The United Kingdom is certainly prepared to do that. There is nothing that other countries in Europe have proposed that we have blocked. The United Kingdom is fully prepared to play its full part."

Shortly before his meeting with Lavrov, Deshchytsia, the acting Ukrainian foreign minister, had said his government had been seeking a peaceful settlement to a crisis that was in imminent danger of escalating.

"We wanted to find out what they are thinking about Ukraine and what they are thinking of their plans towards Ukraine," Deshchytsia said. "We want to live peacefully with Russia. We want our nations to coexist and they will coexist. So we wanted to sit down around the table and find a solution, maybe drink vodka. But since we don't know their plans, the possibility for a military intervention is very high taking into consideration the intel information about the deployment of a very big number of Russian troops on the eastern borders of Ukraine."

"We are very much worried about the concentration of troops on our eastern borders but at the same time we are ready to defend our homeland. Our military and civilians living in eastern Ukraine – Ukrainians, Russians other nationalities - are ready to defend their homeland, and our military is also ready to defend Ukraine."

Culled from theguardian.com