The Upper Benue River Basin Development Authority (UBRBDA) has said that the Dadin Kowa hydropower plant in Gombe State has been active on the national power grid since January, 2020.
This paper recently erroneously reported that despite completing the facility, it has not been inaugurated and put to use. But clarifying further in a statement, the authority said the dam was completed in 1982 to provide irrigation and flood control in the region, and with a power component that could generate 40 megawatts (MW).
It said the Federal Ministry of Water Resources signed a concession agreement on Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) for 25 years with Mabon Ltd in 2005, which was revised in 2016. The contract for the power component was signed in 2011 and that the contractor completed installations and testing of the electromechanical component in 2022, which justified power evacuation through the Gombe to Biu transmission line operated by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
The company, however, admitted that the project has not been officially inaugurated. This is amid grumbling by people around Dadin Kowa that they don’t feel the impact especially on power supply.
The statement reads in part: “Therefore, the general public should note that Mabon Ltd was issued a licence to generate electricity and evacuate into the national grid as an Independent Power Producer (IPP) by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) but not to distribute power for domestic consumption.”
The statement added that Mabon has been generating electricity of 40MW and evacuating the same to the national grid since January 2020.
“The people of Dadin Kowa town in Yamaltu Deba and Gombe are expected to contact Jos Distribution Company Ltd (JEDC) as their vendor for domestic electricity consumption for any challenges.”
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