The Road To Self Sufficiency In Electricity Supply — Aba Traders

Shop owners at the Ariaria International Market in Aba, Abia State, can now enjoy constant electricity supply from a 9.5 megawatts gas-based independent power plant and a distribution system.

With up to 37,000 shops specialicing in a wide range of goods, the Ariaria International Market has become valued for its versatility in leather works and clothes making, and according experts deserved improved infrastructure.

The market is said to house millions of traders and artisans that contribute to the growth of the Nigerian economy as well as the states in south-eastern part of the country.

For years, the market reportedly remained without stable grid electricity supply and often relied on third-party supply sources to operate. Attempts though to remedy this through supplies from a 188MW-capacity IPP built by Geometrics Power at Osisioma, and for which agreement to distribute to Aba and Ariaria was reportedly reached in 2005, failed to come through when in 2013, the federal government was said not to have respected the content of the agreement during its power sector privatisation programme, and thus raised a legal scuffle.

Years passed by and Ariaria reportedly remained inadequately electrified by Enugu electricity distribution company (Disco), which on one hand with the government was engaged in a legal tussle with Geometrics over who owned the right to distribute electricity in the market.

It was however not for long when the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) set up its Energising Economies Initiative (EEI) to bring succour to the traders.
The REA identified and took up Ariaria as a potential beneficiary in the programme which was planned to within one year provide electricity to over 80,000 shops; empower over 340,000 micro, small and medium enterprises as well as create over 2,500 jobs through the first 16 economic clusters chosen.

Besides Ariaria, REA’s Managing Director, Damilola Ogunbiyi, explained that the EEI had provided electricity to 10,000 shops in four other markets across the country.

“To date, almost 10,000 shops have been electrified as part of the Energising Economies Initiative within Ariaira Market in Abia, Sabon Gari Market in Kano, Sura Market complex and Iponri market in Lagos, Isikan market in Ondo.
“It is therefore very clear that, this administration is committed to ensuring that Nigerian businesses are given the ability to thrive and thus boost economic activity in a conducive and healthy environment,” Ogunbiyi, stated during the Ariaria commissioning.

The EEI in Ariaria
Even though there was an outcry against REA’s decision to step into Ariaria and provide electricity to the market, while a legal battle between Geometric and the Enugu Disco continued, the agency and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) felt it was right and in public interest to carve out again and allow Ariaria Market Energy Solutions Limited (AMES) – a privately-funded special purpose vehicle (SPV), to set up a 9.5MW power system for the sole purpose of solving the electricity problems of the huge market.

Justifying its action, the NERC explained it did it rewarded operational licenses over Ariaria to AMES in line with Section 71(6) of the Electric Power Sector Reform (EPSR) Act 2005, adding that the licenses to the new operator would address the challenges of power supply to the market.

It said then, “The NERC in pursuit of overriding public interest has granted a 9.5 megawatts embedded electricity generation licence to Ariaria Market Independent Power Plant Limited and an independent electricity distribution licence to distribute same within Ariaria Market to Ariaria Independent Energy Distribution Network Limited.”

source: This Day