The governor of Kano State, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has kept his promise from the campaign to restore power to water treatment facilities and public lighting systems.
The Ganduje administration has completed the construction of the Tiga 10 Megawatt Hydro Power Station in order to achieve this goal. After many years of government effort to realise the ambition, the project is currently undergoing pre-commissioning testing.
The governor commended the State Independent Power Company (KHEDCO), the contractors, and everyone else who helped during an inspection visit and expressed his happiness with the project's advancement.
The remaining actions for commissioning the 10 MW of electricity produced by the Tiga station will be taken, according to Ganduje, who was happy with the project's advancement.
He explained that the Tamburawa Water Treatment Plant and the street lights in Kano Metropolitan would both require electricity to operate.
“With this, our water issue will be dealt with decisively. So also our street lights issues will soon become history. While this project will be commissioned on January 29, 2023, we are still on a similar project in Challawa Godge Dam, where we are generating 6 Megawatts;
“For the generation and distribution of energy, the state government had established an Independent Power Company, as the law stipulates. We came up with Kano Hydro and Energy Development Company (KHEDCO). A limited liability Company;
“All the two needed licences for operations were secured since June 2021 by National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). Licences for power generation and distribution. He assured that in the next few weeks, the power generated from Tiga would be evacuated to Tamburawa Water Treatment Plant, adding that all evacuation lines from Tiga to Tamburawa has been fully completed.”
He emphasised that the electricity from Tiga would be transmitted and generated at the same 33KV voltage and used to power the Tamburawa water treatment plant.
According to him, the contractors have promised that the remaining tasks—automation and final certification from the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA)—will be completed within the next few days.
Governor Ganduje promised that he would have left an indelible mark on every aspect of human endeavour by the end of his second term.
Adding support to the governor’s position on her agency’s readiness to enable the project’s speedy implementation, Engineer Hadiza Ahmed Tukur, managing director of Kano Hydro and Energy Development Company (KHEDCO), stated that two generators were operational in Tiga as of late, one of which was vertical and produced eight megawatts of power.
One is vertical and has a capacity of ten megawatts, while the other is horizontal and generates only two megawatts of power.
Hajiya Khadija said that aside from that, everything was finished, and preparations for commissioning the hydro project are ongoing, “though we have two major outstanding work – one is the Nigeria Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA) Certification this an agency under the Federal Ministry of Power.”
“The Commissioning cannot occur until NEMSA gives its consent. She continued, “Secondly, we have the Automation, which is the linkage between the generation and the Carrier System Computerisation; it deals with everything happening at the powerhouse, and the work is in progress.”
These two tasks are all that remain, she says, and once they are done in four or five days, “we are going to open water to allow it to rotate in our turbines and we are going to test run both the eight and two generators once we get approval from the Hadejia Jama’are River Basin Development Authority (HJRBDA).”
Hajiya Hadiza Ahmed Tukur added that a load and off-load test of the two and eight Megawatts would be conducted on January 29. She remarked that the results would give workers “confidence.”
Additionally, power generated in Tiga will be transmitted to the Tamburawa water treatment plant through the evacuation line; “we are generating at 33kva and also transmitting at 33kva but on reaching the Tamburawa water treatment facility you have to scale it down to 3311.”
Many people in Kano, especially those whose livelihood depends on power, cheered when they heard the news of the anticipated commissioning.
Welders Malam Bala Mohammed Dikko of Garo and Audun Malam Isa of Tiga praised the quick commissioning of the Tiga hydropower project, saying that the electricity provided by KEDCO would be a massive boon to their respective companies.
A Director in one of the state’s Ministries, also speaking anonymously, claimed that the Tiga hydropower will help much in reducing power shortages and boosting the state’s sluggish industry.