Peter Uzoho
The Wavelength Integrated Power Services, one of the independent power providers in the country has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ibeshe community, Ikorodu, Lagos State, to deliver stable and sustainable electricity supply to the community.
The densely populated riverine Ibeshe land is made up of 47 Community Development Areas (CDAs) under 14 communities, and is currently under the distribution network of Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IE).
Under the deal, Wavelength would deliver seven megawatts of power daily to the community with a plan to ramp it up to 14 and 21 megawatts progressively in future.
The initial seven MW is estimated to cost the company close to $7 million, which would be funded through private equity and secondary sources. Wavelength also said part of the process was to engage with Ikeja Electric for negotiation on matters relating to how to pay the debts owed it by the community and possible concessioning of its assets and distribution infrastructure in the community.
Giving further details on the deal during the MoU signing ceremony recently, the Commercial/Technical Director, Wavelength Integrated Power Services, Mr. Moses Ajayi, said: “We are trying to make sure that we make power available to this rich community, Ibeshe land.”
According to him, “this is their yearning to make sure that they have light for 24 hours, and this we intend not to do without having to discuss with the public service provider, Ikeja Electric.
“So, we are trying to have power generated independently and distributed through the same network Ikeja Electric is using. We have a law that regulates it; we have charges that we need to pay.
“These are all arbitrative things and processes that we need to go through. With that we will be able to make sure that we bring together the services offered by Ikeja Electric and that offered by us so that the end person that will enjoy the product which is electricity will be the people here in Ibeshe land.”
Ajayi added: “the first step in all this is to have an MoU signed, this is the first step towards having the right to negotiate, discuss or interface with Ikeja Electric. After this we will be able to map out strategies to engage IE. Our engagement with IE is an engagement of understanding, because it is their jurisdiction and we need to take them along, because they need to concession the place for us based on agreement. So we will have to run to them to start up our deployment strategy.
“We have a rough estimate of seven megawatts. What happens is, we will double it based on our studies. Why I said 7 megawatts is because of our partners, we have engine that can give us seven MW, that we can easily deploy. But we need to actually do studies, we can go beyond seven, 14 and 21.
“These are all we have in the pipeline. Estimated investment on this is close to $7 million, because to one megawatt is $1 million, so it is times seven. We will have an equity, we will go to the market to get it, so we will be able to do it”.
Also, the Managing Director of Wavelength, Mr. Oneal Lajuwomi, who said the journey for the partnership started three years ago, noted: “so what we are trying to do as an independent power provider is to come in here and energise the whole community and provide stable power for them.
