Siemens Power, the German company handling Nigeria’s Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) designed to upgrade Nigeria’s grid hinted on Monday that the implementation of the project would be completed five years earlier than the 2030 earlier set for its completion.
The Head of Business Development and Government Relations at Siemens Energy, Oladayo Orolu, who made this disclosure during an interview with Bloomberg, blamed delay on the project’s implementation to supply chain disruptions by the Covid-19 pandemic which broke out in 2020
Orolu in the interview explained that the rehabilitation and expansion of nation’s electricity grid by 2025, will now be concluded in 2030,
He said: “The three-phase project was set back by delays in starting the first phase. When we conceptualized this project in 2018, our plan was within two years we should be done with phase one, but then Covid happened,” disrupting supply chains, which meant getting raw materials took longer than before.”
The expert also attributed the delay to rising costs and explained that the company was expecting electricity output from the national grid to increase by an additional 2,000 megawatts at the completion of phase one by 2025, with the objective of phase one to quick fix projects that will free up 2,000 megawatts.
He further clarified: “We currently have 5000, we are looking at taking that to 7,000. Prices are not at the same level they used to be.
“Some raw material components costs have been doubled, some are still close to where they used to be, some are just marginally higher”, Orolu added.
According to him, in 2020, the phase one was projected to cost about €2 billion but that now the cost overruns will make the project to cost more.
The Federal Government had earlier this year reported that the phase one of the Siemens power project under the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI), which is described as a quick-win intervention strategy, aims to address immediate constraints in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), was 80% completed.
The Managing Director of the FGN Power Company, Mr. Kenny Anuwe, who updated Nigerians on the progress made on the project then, confirmed that the project has reached 80% completion.
