By KUNLE KALEJAYE
The management of Ibom Power Station said the plant has made significant progress in power generation since it began operations in December 2009, which peaked at 68 megawatts, MW in December 2011.

The Managing Director of Ibom Power Company, Mr. Gareth Wilcox, who disclosed this in a statement made available to Vanguard, said, “Indeed, since we began generating power commercially in December 2009, our plant has remained active, generating on the average, 60MW of power to the national grid,” he said.

He, however, pointed out that the plant’s major constraint is the transmission system, which can only allow the plant to evacuate a maximum of 70MW when it is meant to evacuate an optimum average of 173MW.

“Due to the transmission constraint, and to avoid penalties, we have only signed a gas agreement for the gas required for 70MW. When the transmission line constraint is removed further gas will be required,” he said.

Wilcox explained that the Phase 1 power is evacuated the through the 132kV substations at Eket, Uto and Itu, and thereafter to either Calabar or Aba, in Cross River and Abia states respectively.

According to him, the line from Eket through Uyo to Itu can only carry between 50MW and 60MW, while that from Ikot Abasi to Eket, which was constructed by Ibom Power Company can carry 200MW.

“The upgrade of the line from Eket through Uyo to Itu has been under development since 2004. It was taken over by the NIPP projects and it is expected that this work will be completed this year. Ibom Power will then be able to evacuate most of its available power,” he said

On distribution, Wilcox lamented that the distribution system was in a very poor state, adding that faults in the distribution system cause continuous trips to the plant’s generators, which increases maintenance costs and reduces operational efficiency.

“Our company is licensed to generate electricity. It is not licensed to transmit, or distribute electricity. Furthermore, it is forbidden, with the exception of a possible minor investment to have any involvement with transmission or distribution companies.