President Bola Tinubu will today officially open the first integrated power plant in Nigeria, the Geometric Power Plant, located in the Osisioma Industrial District of Aba. Aba is the commercial centre of Abia State.

Turbine 3 was turned on at 3:39 p.m. on Sunday, February 25, 2024, in anticipation of the Power plant’s commissioning. This event caused a great deal of joy for the engineers of Geometric Power and their colleagues at KS Energy.

President Bola Tinubu was originally supposed to inaugurate the 181-megawatt Geometric Power facility on Saturday, February 24.

Nine out of the seventeen Local Government Areas in Abia State will receive energy from the new plant thanks to Aba Power Limited Electric, the country’s newest electricity distribution company (DISCO).

Geometric Power has invested over $800 million in its integrated power project, which is considered the largest investment in the South-East Zone of Nigeria. This project involves the construction of a 27-kilometer natural gas pipeline that runs from Owaza in Ukwa West LGA, Abia State, to the Osisioma Industrial Layout in Aba.

Ben Caven, managing director of Geometric electricity Ltd., added, “We have furthermore installed 150,000 km of cables and wires, installed four new electricity substations, and refurbished three others inherited from the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

Professor and former minister of Power Bart Nnaji initiated the Geometric Power Group.

When former World Bank President James Wolfensohn and Nigeria’s Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala visited Aba on March 17, 2004, Nnaji began the integrated project after learning that the biggest issue facing large- and medium-sized industrialists in Aba—which is known as the hub of indigenous manufacturing in Nigeria—was the city’s unstable power supply.

Following the 22MW Abuja Emergency Power Plant, which he led a team of Nigerian engineers to build in Abuja between 2000 and 2001 and which provided continuous power to vital locations like the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Company, the Central Bank headquarters, the Aso Rock, and the entire Central Business District of Abuja, both Wolfensohn and Okonjo-Iweala pleaded with Nnaji to help with a power plant dedicated to Aba.

The tubular poles installed by Geometric Power in Aba and the surrounding areas are unparalleled in Africa, according to Patrick Umeh, a former executive with Los Angeles Water and Light in the United States and later commissioner in-charge of Markets, Market Rates, and Competition at the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

Facilities of this calibre and magnitude can only be found in major cities like Tokyo and San Francisco, California.

“The tubular poles here are actually roughly 10 metres deep, despite their apparent height.

Put differently, Aba Power and the Geometric Group will continue to be able to provide electricity to their countless clients in the rare case of a natural calamity, such as an earthquake in Aba or the surrounding area.

“In Aba, electricity was scarce and insufficient to run even domestic appliances, let alone large machinery,” stated Alphonsus Udeigbo, the president general of the Aba Landlords Protection and Development Association (ALPANDA).

According to Andy Ubah Obasi, a former president of the Aba Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ACCIMA), Geometric Power Limited’s acquisition of Aba will spur industrialization throughout Nigeria and the South-East.
He states, “The business community feels that this has been waiting a long time.” The majority of people are aware of the advantages power has for industrialization. The business community has been eagerly awaiting this for the past 16 years, and we are happy that it has now arrived. Geometric has always been there.

Alexander Maduakor, President of the Association of Aba Industrialists, believes that the opening of the Geometric Power plant will usher in a new era for the nation as a whole, not only in Aba or Abia State.

“We are pleased with the backing the Federal Government has recently extended to Geometric Power Limited, the only organisation in Nigeria capable of producing and distributing its own electricity.