The Rivers State government and Schneider Electric, global specialist in energy management, have signed a contract valued at €20 million for the supply of electricity within the state and its environs.

The contract which has an implementation deadline of June 30, 2012, confers on Schneider Electric the right to design, manufacture, and supply 28 units of 15MVA 33/11KV injection of substations for the state.

Signing the contract in Port-Harcourt, the Rivers State Commissioner of Power, Hon. Augustine Wokocha, explained that the decision to partner with Schneider Electric was informed by the company’s track record in innovative power solutions.
He also said that the award of the contracts was an exhibition of the commitment of Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s administration to cater for the electricity needs of residents of the state.

He said that as part of the contract, Schneider Electric is to organize overseas training as well as on-site training for the state’s technical staff that would later be responsible for daily running and maintenance of the facilities.

He said that the training programmes would help in the transfer of expertise towards ensuring the sustainability and maintenance of the projects.

He also said that Schneider Electric will set up a service centre and a workshop as part of the terms of the contract.

“The service centre will upon completion be a full-fledged workshop for the manufacturing of low voltage equipment transformer control panels for substation automation but most importantly, to conduct a full sample test of all the sub-station equipment to check their operational ability and full configuration as well as check quality and trouble shoot before deploying to site,” he said.