Husk, AEDC Sign Partnership Deal To Expand Power Access In Nasarawa Community
By Sunday Etuka, Abuja
Husk Power Systems (Husk) and Abuja Electricity Distribution Plc (AEDC), together with Duduguru community in Nasarawa State, have signed a partnership agreement to serve peri-urban commercial and residential customers with sustainable, affordable and reliable energy from interconnected minigrids (IMGs).
The solar-powered minigrid in Duduguru, located in Obi Local Government Area (LGA), has a planned average daily energy supply of 656 kW, which will serve about 1,000 customers, roughly 80% households and 20% micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and small factories.
Husk’s Chief Marketing Officer, Mr. William Brent in a statement on Thursday the signing ceremony was attended by Chijioke Okwuonkenye, AEDC’s Acting MD/CEO, Nigeria Country Director Olu Aruike from Husk Power Systems and Prince Bulus Iwala (JP), Chief of Duduguru (ZHE Duglu).
Husk, which already has more than 40 isolated minigrids operational in Nigeria, has identified a pipeline of more than 50 IMGs across 10 states in Nigeria.
Interconnected minigrids involve a three-way partnership between minigrid developers, distribution companies (Discos) like AEDC, and the community where the IMGs are located.
In May 2024, Husk and the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) announced a partnership to deploy 250MW of decentralized renewable energy (DRE) projects in Nigeria, including IMGs.
This is part of Husk’s strategy to scale the renewable energy service company (RESCO) model and meet Nigeria’s goal of increasing the percentage of renewables in the grid with resilient, distributed energy infrastructure.
With IMGs, Husk assumes responsibility for a Disco service area, building a local solar generation asset (minigrid) that will displace significant diesel generation and taking on operations and maintenance (O&M), bill collection and all other responsibilities for that area. IMGs use the Disco’s existing transmission and distribution (T&D) infrastructure, optimizing customer service with metering, collection and system management.
Commenting on the announcement, Manoj Sinha, Husk’s Co-Founder and CEO, said: “This is a first step in successfully scaling the renewable energy service company (RESCO) model, not only for all of Nigeria, but eventually across Sub-Saharan Africa. It is a clear demonstration of how decentralized renewable energy systems give people and businesses the ability to control their own energy future.”
Added Prince Bulus Iwala (JP), Chief of Duduguru (ZHE Duglu), said: “On behalf of Duduguru Community, this is a welcome idea from Husk Power and we strongly believe that this will bring unprecedented development to Duduguru community in Jenkwe Development Area of Obi Local Government, Nasarawa State.”
