FG To Commission Four New Power Plants …Claims Electricity Supply Hits 5,500mw

In a couple of weeks, the fed
eral government would be inaugurating four new power plants across the country.
The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, disclosed this at the end of the last meeting of the Board of Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) Limited.
Nebo claimed that the present administration has achieved installed minimum electricity generation capacity of 5,500 megawatts in spite of unrelenting sabotage of oil and gas pipelines by vandals.
At the meeting which was chaired by Vice President Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the Power Minister disclosed that government was losing N120 million monthly and N1.5 billion yearly to repairs of vandalised pipelines.
According to Nebo, the current spate of pipeline vandalism which occurs every two weeks had made the nation to lose about 1,600 megawatts of electricity.
Nebo advised the incoming government of Muhammadu Buhari to intensify security surveillance of the petroleum pipelines in the country and to consider digitalising the surveillance system.
He said that four power plants have been completed and would be commissioned in the next couple of weeks, remarking that Sapele and Ihobor power plants are amongst the new four power plants ready for commissioning.
“We intend to do the commissioning very soon so that Nigerians will enjoy even more in the power sector,” Nebo stated.
“There are literally hundreds of other projects that need to be commissioned. So, very soon, we are going into the commissioning exercise,” he said.
The Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam, who is also a member of the Board of Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited, said the board resolved to commission some of the numerous projects under the NIPP programme in subsequent weeks.
Suswam disclosed further that apart from the new power plants, more transmission lines have also been completed but could, however, not complete some sales transactions because of complications in the bid process and inadequate gas supply.
He explained that the inability to seal the sales transactions was due to fear of the unknown when a new government comes on board next month.

Chris Oluoh