Siemens states reasons completion of Nigeria’s power project moves from 2025 to 2030

“We were to deliver 7,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity to the national grid by 2021, and 11,000 megawatts by 2023, in phases one and two of the initiative, respectively”

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

The German engineering company Siemens AG said the completion and revamping of Nigeria’s power infrastructure that was expected to be completed in 2025, has been extended till 2030.

The Presidential Power Initiative (PPI), is a power upgrade and modernisation programme project between the Nigerian government and Siemens with the support of the German government.

The Nigerian government had signed a power project deal in July 2019 with Siemens AG to deliver 7,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity to the national grid by 2021, and 11,000 megawatts by 2023, in phases one and two of the initiative, respectively.

Oladayo Orolu, head of business development and government relations at Siemens Energy, who sat for an interview with Bloomberg on Monday, August 7, said the deal to rehabilitate and expand the country’s electricity grid by 2025, will now be concluded in 2030.

Orolu has to say “The three-phase project was set back by delays in starting the first phase.

“When we conceptualised this project in 2018, our plan was within two years we should be done with phase one, but then COVID happened, disrupting supply chains, which meant getting raw materials took longer than before.

“Cost overruns also affected the project’s completion, as we expected electricity output to increase by an additional 2,000 megawatts at the completion of phase one by 2025.

“We currently have 5000, we are looking at taking that to 7,000. Prices are not at the same level they used to be. In 2020, phase one was projected to cost about €2 billion.

“Some raw material components costs have been doubled, some are still close to where they used to be, some are just marginally higher.”