The geometric power plant Aba, which is owned by Prof. Barth Nnaji, is a pure game changer for our power sector. Let me explain why.
Prof. Nnaji’s geometric power plant is currently generating 141 megawatts of power.
For proper context, Enugu disco, owned by Sir Emeka Offor, is only distributing 300 megawatts for the five states. In the south-east
300 megawatts is what the National Grid gives to Enugu Disco because they don’t have the capacity to generate power like Geometric; rather, they distribute what they were given.
So one private power company is generating and distributing half of what a bigger power company is distributing.
Geometric is serving just nine local governments in Abia State, including Aba.
Enugu disco is only distributing to 5 states in the south-east, which include Abia, Enugu, Imo, Anambra, and Ebonyi.
This is not all.
Barth Nnaji’s Geometric is building their 5th power turbine, and when completed, Geometric will now generate and distribute 181 megawatts of power, which will be an excess and too much for the 9 local governments they are currently serving in Abia State, so they plan to sell the excess and extra capacity to the national grid as off-takers.
There are so many lessons to unpack from Barth Nnaji’s extraordinary courage and what he did with geometric.
1) This model we are running for generating and distributing light in Nigeria will not work and can never work.
We need Nnaji’s model if we want to have an uninterrupted power supply in Nigeria.
The model is simple.
A future power company must be able to generate and distribute power at the same time.
That is the model that works, and this is why what Nnaji did was extraordinary.
2) Nnaji’s story has also reminded us why this centralised system of generating power can’t work.
Never
A country of 200 million people is being served electricity by one national grid located in Oshogbo, Osun State.
This is insane, which is why I don’t have power in my house at the moment.
We need to allow private investors to build and operate power plants in each state instead of depending on an ineffective and inefficient national grid that collapses all the time.
Lagos alone should have something like Geometric, generating and distributing light for the whole state.
We have no business in Lagos depending on the national grid for light.
It is good that the state electricity bill has addressed this.
Time to see it in action
3) Barth Nnaji is remarkable and inspiring, no matter where you look at it.
Do you know he made sure that Geometric owned and controlled the whole eco-system in the supply and distribution of power?
Nothing was left to chance or fate.
For example, Geometric owns the oil well that supplies gas to its plant.
Nnaji even built a 5-kilometre pipeline from the oil well location to the Geometic power plant, just to make sure there is no excuse when it comes to gas supply.
Gas is the raw material that Geometric needs to fire to generate uninterrupted power for Aba and the neighbouring local communities, and Nnaji meticulously made sure that the raw material was secured and guaranteed so he could generate a 24/7 power supply for his customers.
4) With his story, Nnaji has reminded us that generating a 24/7 uninterrupted power supply is not rocket science.
Customers of Geometric in Abia State are currently enjoying 24 hours of uninterrupted power.
The British solved this power supply problem in the 18th century in Britain, long before they arrived in Nigeria to colonise us.
It is shameful that we are yet to solve this power problem in Nigeria, and we are in 2024.
Barth Nnaji has led the way, showing us a glimpse of how it is done, the future, and the template of power generation in Nigeria.
Time for the whole country to copy his examples.
