The Federal Government has commissioned a 1-megawatt (MW) solar mini-grid with a 2.4-megawatt-hour (MWh) battery vitality storage system in Tallasse, Balanga Local Government Area of Gombe State, whereas commencing construction of 4 interconnected mini-grid tasks with a mixed capability of 16MW.
The commissioning, held on Saturday, additionally marked the groundbreaking for tasks serving Dukku, Bajoga, Kumo and Kaltungo communities, as the federal government expands distributed renewable vitality infrastructure throughout the nation.
The Tallasse project additionally contains productive-use gear designed to attach dependable electrical energy with agriculture, processing, transportation and native enterprise.
Gombe solar project targets rural companies
Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya described the project as an end result of the partnership between the Gombe State Government and the Federal Government via the Rural Electrification Agency (REA).
He mentioned the infrastructure would assist translate electrical energy entry into financial alternatives for residents, notably these working in agriculture and associated companies.
- “For us in Gombe State, this project is significant because it connects energy directly to the economic strengths of our people. Balanga is an agricultural community. When reliable electricity is combined with rice milling, groundnut processing, flour production and electric mobility, we are not merely lighting homes, we are strengthening an entire local economy,” Yahaya mentioned.
The project contains electrical tricycles, an electrical groundnut oil processing plant, a modular electrical rice mill and electrical flour-grinding machines.
The governor additionally recommended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Minister of Power and REA management for supporting the initiative.
He described the partnership for example of how cooperation between federal and state governments may ship infrastructure with direct advantages for communities.
REA shifts focus to financial influence
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of REA, Abba Aliyu, mentioned the 1MW Tallasse project serves 6,028 connections, comprising 5,929 residential items, 84 business connections and 15 devoted nodes for productive financial actions.
Aliyu mentioned the company was shifting past measuring rural electrification by the quantity of connections and megawatts put in to assessing the financial outcomes enabled by electrical energy.
- “For many years, the conversation around electricity access has understandably focused on how many people we connect and how many megawatts we deploy. Those numbers remain important. But the next frontier is to ask a more fundamental question: what happens after the electricity arrives?” he mentioned.
He added that the productive-use gear was meant to assist farmers course of produce regionally, assist new companies and enhance productiveness and earnings.
Aliyu additionally highlighted the position of the two.4MWh battery storage system in bettering electrical energy reliability.
- “Access without reliability limits economic impact. This is why we are increasingly integrating storage, intelligent monitoring, productive-use equipment and sustainable operating models into our interventions. We are building electricity ecosystems, not simply installing power plants,” he mentioned.
FG expands renewable vitality tasks
Minister of Power Joseph Tegbe mentioned the Gombe tasks shaped half of the Tinubu administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda, geared toward increasing entry to financial alternatives regardless of location.
He cited renewable vitality tasks in Kwara State, the Federal Capital Territory and Oyo State as proof of the federal government’s efforts to increase electrical energy infrastructure to extra communities.
- “This is the practical expression of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda: taking investment to communities and expanding the foundations of shared prosperity,” Tegbe mentioned.
The Gombe commissioning follows the groundbreaking of a 17.7MW interconnected mini-grid project in Iwo, Ibadan, Oyo State, earlier in the week.
The Federal Government is pursuing distributed renewable vitality alongside typical grid enlargement, together with interconnected and remoted mini-grids, embedded technology, solar dwelling techniques and devoted renewable energy tasks for public establishments and productive communities.
These initiatives type half of the federal government’s broader effort to increase electrical energy entry and assist a commercially sustainable distributed renewable vitality market.
