In line with the federal government’s plans of developing a robust power sector to meet the country’s electricity demands, Proton Energy Limited, recently signed an agreement that allows it supply upto 150 megawatts of power to the national grid.
The management of the company believes that the long term Gas Supply Aggregation Agreement entered into with five other gas supply partners will further help Nigeria utilize its natural gas for the betterment of its citizen.
The agreement is between Proton Energy Limited (Proton), Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd., NNPC, The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, SPDC, TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited (Total), Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited, NAOC, and Gas Aggregation Company Nigeria Limited, GACN, for the supply of natural gas for the 150 MW first phase of the project.
Speaking at an event in Abuja to commemorate the Gas Supply Agreement, the CEO and Executive Vice Chairman of Proton Energy Limited, Mr. Oti Ikomi, noted that the development is a major milestone in the development of its 500 MW Proton Delta Sunrise project.
He explained that the plant will be built in two phases, with the first phase delivering 150 MW of electricity to the national grid, whilst the second phase will add a further 350 MW and expand the plant’s capacity to 500 MW.
The Chief Executive Officer also assured that the first phase of the project will reach commercial operations in 2025, and help deliver the much needed reliable incremental power megawatts to the national grid.
Commenting on sone of the key milestone of the company, Mr. Oti Ikomi said, “Proton Energy is an advanced IPP project which, with the continued support of key regulatory and financial sector stakeholders, has the potential to reach Financial Close by the end of 2023. We thank our partners for their dedication towards executing this aqreement and their contributions towards the development of a more robust domestic electricity market.”
Ikomi added that, “Proton Energy supports the further integration of renewable sources of energy onto the national grid. The project has been designed to minimize its environmental footprint whilst better utilizing available domestic gas supplies which in many cases is flared. The project will be one of the first projects in Nigeria to utilizea more efficient Combined Cycle Gas Turbine configuration, CCGT, and will incorporate cutting-edge carbon reduction technologies.
“This will enable the project to reduce its carbon footprint and meet the most stringent emissions standards for a gas to power projects. The project additionally allows for a future option to incorporate the use of hydrogen as feedstock in the future. Critically and in the context of national climate pledges the project will enable the country to further deepen and accelerate the incorporation of intemittent renewable projects into the national grid through the supply of reliable base load power”.
On his part, the Chairman of the Board of Proton Energy, Mr Ike Osakwe, commended the management of the company for diligently progressing the project over a number of years.
He also appreciated the gas supply partners for their support saying, “It is good to see the project reach near ‘shovel ready’ status and we expect that on the back of this achievernent the project will be able to reach an early financial close and start to deliver a much needed reliable supply of power megawatts to the national grid. We would like to take this opportunity to also acknowledge the support of our key development partners incuding Siemens, CMEC Fieldstone & AlIM.”
Nigeria curently scores low on major indices tracking the supply of reliable electricity to its population. The management of Proton Energy Limited is however optimistic that the successful implementation of the project, combined with other electricity value chain initiatives that are currently underway, will help to lay the foundations, in the medium term, for an era characterised by the supply of reliable and affordable electricity to the general populace.
