Nigeria looks to add another 2,555MW of power in 2016

Nigeria is working to bring another 2,550 megawatts of power to the national grid in the course of this year, BusinessDay has learnt.

This could take total power generated from the current 5,000MW to more than 7,000MW by year end.

At the Geregu plant where only two of the six 115MW capacity turbines are working, the plan is to bring the other four turbines on stream. This will raise generation by about 460MW.

The government is also working on bringing to life the entire 700MW capacity at the Olorunsungo plant which has remained idle because of gas supply issues.

There is also another 300MW of idle capacity at the Aba Power plant which is expected to be unencumbered and made to work.

Government officials also told BusinessDay that at the Alaoji power plant, where dispute over a telecom mast has kept about 450MW of power stranded, a resolution will be found to enable the plant to function.

Finally, there is an idle 245MW capacity at the old AES plant in Lagos, owned by the state government and which is now hoped will be revived.

Our reporter was told that there are already discussions going on with the NNPC to establish a gas supply line to the plant before the end of the year.

A number of initiatives by both the government and private investors had been bogged down by the delay in enforcing a cost reflective tariff and with that now in place since February 1, analysts believe the sector could see significant ramp up in capacity from this year.

One senior government official who spoke to BusinessDay at the weekend, said, “for the first time, we have a tariff regime in place that ensures that the entire value chain is viable, from generation to distribution to transmission and gas supply.

“We do not have a perfect system, but we are confident that the new tariff regime which came into effect this month, will clear the way for substantial investment into the power sector.

“Some persons have raised issues with the privatisation of the assets hitherto owned by government. Yes, there may be some failings, but the people who bought these assets are Nigerians, so we have to be careful how we deal with things like this.

“Exactly eight years ago, the government reversed the privatisation of two refineries. Now, eight years after, no one can say we made a wise decision.”

He said there was  a deal to get the distribution companies to expedite their programme for the installation of subscriber meters across the country, to help reduce incidence of controversial billing in the sector.

By Our Reporter