Politically speaking, it is cheering to read in the news of the invitation extended to qualified and competent organizations by the federal government to bid for the concession of the newly-built 700MW Zungeru hydro power plant. This project is the fifth hydro station in Nigeria after the Kainji, Jebba, Shiroro and Mabon Dadin-Kowa hydro stations and will increase available generation capacity by 700MW. It will be the second largest hydro station in the country after Kainji hydro station with installed generation capacity of 760MW. Zungeru power plant has four machines of 175MW generation capacity each and will use the two existing 330KV lines between Jebba and Shiroro for evacuation of its output in a turn-in-turn-out arrangement.
Zungeru power plant is built on the upper and middle reaches of the Kaduna River and share this raw material with the 600MW Shiroro hydro plant, presently being operated by the North South power Company Limited (NSPCL) under a concession arrangement. Apart from power production, the Zungeru power station is set to help in flood control and irrigation activities in the downstream end of the river.
The invitation of interested organizations to bid for the operation and maintenance of the power plant for a thirty year period is in order and a positive development that complies with due process.
However, if the North South Power Company Limited (NSPCL) signifies interest and applies for concession of the Zungeru power station in this bidding exercise, it is advisable that NSPCL be given the right of first refusal for very obvious technical reasons and taking the historical experience of Kainji and Jebba power plants into cognizance.
Prior to awarding Mainstream Energy concession to operate both Kainji and Jebba power stations for a thirty year period, it was a cat and mouse situation as there was no coordination but continuous rivalry between the two dams. This gave the controlling unit, the National Control Centre (NCC), a lot of headache in coordinating the activities of the two stations as Kainji plant that is in the upper stream allegedly oftentimes hoard the resource in anticipation of getting more machines available when Jebba may not have enough water to run its own available machines. Also, when there is need to spill excess water for the safety of the dams, such sensitive operation lacks proper coordination between the two power stations.
Since both Kainji and Jebba power plants were handed over to Mainstream Energy under a thirty year concession arrangement, operations are now seamless and smooth to the extent that the controlling unit (NCC) now carries out its job with more ease and the riparian communities are also beneficiaries as they are carried along by the company in their operations.
Judging from the above historical experience of Kainji and Jebba power stations, it becomes necessary to give NSPCL the right of first refusal for there to be effective coordination and seamless operation of the water resource on behalf of both Shiroro and Zungeru power plants as they are conjoined and are like Siamese twin with regards to their source of raw material.