Siemens, which seeks to play greater role in the country’s emerging private sector-led power sector, is partnering with the Federal Ministry of Power to tackle challenges facing Independent Power Plants developers in Nigeria.
The power solution provider, in a statement on Wednesday, said the essence of the second edition of the IPP Forum, which it organised in conjunction with the ministry, was to highlight the support and value Siemens could bring to the table.
The Executive Vice-President, Gas Turbine Power Plant solutions, Siemens AG, Mr. Lothar Balling, said the forum was focused on fostering talks with Independent Power Plant developers and banks with the aim of highlighting the various roles Siemens could play in Nigeria’s budding power industry sector.
He said it had become clear that the future and success of Nigeria’s power sector depended on the giant strides, which green field Independent power production would deliver in the coming years.
“Independent power producers will provide the much anticipated solution to bridging Nigeria’s huge power generation deficit, which has been created over the years,” he said.
He further explained that the forum was set up to highlight the critical milestones and success factors for a successful IPP development.
“We also shared our understanding of the typical challenges being faced by IPP developers in Nigeria’s nascent electricity market and highlight the support and value Siemens can bring to the table,” the statement said.
In his remarks, the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, said, “Siemens is a committed strategic development partner to the Ministry of Power and this collaborative effort is intended to stimulate project development efforts by the private sector that will impact positively on the development of power sector infrastructure in Nigeria.
“This forum is very enlightening and it is very interesting for me to know that Siemens is committed not just to supply the turbines for my project but also willing to handhold me and enable my project development with its technical, commercial and financial experience gathered from several projects across several other countries,” one of the 120 IPP developers, who attended the forum, said.
Nigeria is currently faced with a huge electricity supply gap, generating between 3,000 and 4,000MW of power for a population of about 170 million people. In 2010, the Federal Government introduced wide-ranging reforms to privatise the existing government-owned utility companies and also to set in place commercial and regulatory mechanisms to attract private investments in the sector.