 |
| Babatunde Fashola (SAN) |
MINISTER of Power, Works and Housing, Mr.
Babatunde Fashola yesterday released federal government’s roadmap for boosting
electricity generation through incremental power, saying that the government is
determined to source generation outside the existing power assets in order to
meet the need of the teeming populace.
Delivering a public lecture
titled, “Nigeria’s Electricity Challenge: A Roadmap for Change,” in Lagos
yesterday, the minister noted that the country has 26 power plants, with three
powered by water in Jebba, Kainji and Shiroro, while the rest of the plants are
powered by gas adding that the country has 140 turbines with installed capacity
of 12,341 megawatts, which at the optimal, produce about 78 turbines of power,
which had resulted in February 2, 2016 peak of 5,074 MW.
He regretted that the Jebba Hydro
power plant, which was commissioned in 1985 by President Muhammadu Buhari with
six turbines to provide 540MW of power, and billed to be overhauled every 5
years was abandoned and neglected for 28 years, until it was handed over in
2013, in the aftermath of the privatisation.
“The problems have been identified
as either damaged, unmaintained or unserviced turbines in the hydro power
plants, and in the cases of gas plants, it is largely non-availability of gas,
coupled with lack of maintenance.
“I was at the plant in December
2015, to switch on Turbine 6, which means all the six turbines have been
restored. This is incremental power. But these are just examples of the
maintenance and technical challenges we grapple with daily in the government
from the President, to the Vice-President, and the Ministry which seek to
manage the men and women. Let me share with you some of the human and
administrative challenges, relating to incremental power,” he explained.
“This was the Azura power project
meant to deliver 450 Megawatts. In reality, what took place was only the
turning of the sod. The main activity, which were government securities and
guarantees to enable the financing of the project were never issued. This was
delayed for about a year. It was the Buhari administration that prioritised
this, resolved it, and work has now started with 422 workers on site and
estimated completion date of December 2018. This is the road to incremental
power.
“Instead of spending their energy
and resources completing the power plants and delivering electricity, they were
forced to spend their resources and energy seeking to untie themselves from the
problems created by government since 2013. This government has waded into the
matter, and, through the Vice President, directed our ministry to facilitate
reconciliation, and with the cooperation of the parties, their sense of
patriotism, we got the parties out-of-court in a settlement three years after.
“We are now formalising their
papers so that they can operate independently and collaborate to supply power
to Aba and Enugu Distribution that covers most of the East instead of fighting
in court. Solving the problems of yesterday is the road to incremental power,”
Fashola explained.
He added that the operations at
the Zungeru Power Plant, projected to deliver 700 MW in Niger state by
litigation for several years, however hinted that the dispute has been
resolved, with over 800 workers now back on site and according to him, will
facilitate incremental power.
No comments:
Post a Comment