Monday, 13 August 2012 00:00

First City Monument Bank (FCMB) Plc, said it is partnering with Tower Power Utilities Limited (TPUL) in the financing of a 17.75MW capacity combined cycle gas fired power generation plant in Otta Industrial Estate, Ogun State.
The N4 billion financing was granted through the Bank of Industry’s N300 billion Power and Aviation Intervention Fund (BOI-PAIF), which was launched in August 2009 by the Central Bank of Nigeria to facilitate investment in two of Nigeria’s key sectors which have the potential to drive sustained economic growth.

FCMB refinanced TPUL’s existing non BOI-PAIF debt and has subsequently financed increased capacity from 8.75MW to 15.75MW owing to increased demand from its customers in the Otta Industrial Estate who include but are not limited to Aluminum Rolling Mills, Kolorkote Nigeria Limited, Daraju Industries, Eagle Packaging & Printing, Euro Global & Food Distilleries, Sonhart Investments, Homan Industries Limited and Sadwanis Nigeria Limited. Furthermore, the Company plans to further increase capacity to 17.75 MW with the addition of   a 2MW Waste Heat Recovery Apparatus (WHR) for improved efficiency.

Power is distributed through a small 11KV distribution system installed and owned by TPUL and generated by Cummins made gas engines.  The feedstock is gas, supplied by Shell through a pipeline which terminates in the Ota Industrial Estate. Apart from scheduled maintenance, the gas supply has been uninterrupted since inception.
Mr. Robert Grant, FCMB’s Vice President and Group Head, Project and Structured Finance commented that FCMB was proud to support TPUL’s business model as it provided clean, reliable and affordable electricity to manufacturing companies and that removing these potential users from the national grid has reduced the burden on the Transmission Company of Nigeria’s (TCN) thus, beneficially supporting domestic users with more stable power.

Mr. Grant also commented that small scale Independent Power Providers such as TPUL have proved to be successful “Off Grid” power providers and have been effectively managed by private investors under the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (NERC) licensing guidelines. Beyond the imminent BPE Privatization FCMB will continue to support the Power sector across the entire value chain.
TPUL’s Executive Director, Mr. Arun D-Sira said, “TPUL is equally proud to be a partner with FCMB, in order to satisfy power demand in Otta Industrial cluster. We are looking forward to executing more projects with FCMB to reduce the burden on the National GRID and will be glad to improve efficiency of manufacturing companies/organisations by providing reliable and stable power”.

Mr. Sira also said, “These power plants will also provide embedded distribution for imminently privatized Gencos and Discos and reduces operating costs for commercial and residential customers alike”.