ELECTRICITY IMPROVEMENT: ASSOCIATION COMMENDS NNAJI
Associations in Nigeria commends Prof.Bart Nnaji for keeping his promise of a considerable improvement in power supply across the country from July of 2012, the Minister of Power has earned the commendation of the National Association of Electricity Consumers of Nigeria (NAECN).
The NAECN national coordinator, Chief Ganiyu Makanjuola, gave the commendation in a statement today in Lagos.
Chief Makanjuola, an engineer and president of the Lagos State Branch of the Nigerian Ports Authority Pensioners Welfare, described the Minister of Power, Professor Bart Nnaji, as “a worthy Nigerian citizen and public officer who matches his promise with concrete action”.
According to the engineer, the minister had as early as April assured the nation of a considerable improvement in power supply from the middle of July because of the scheduled increase in natural gas supply from the Nigerian Gas Company, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and in the volume of water at the lakes in the nation's three hydro power stations at Kainji, Shiroro and Jebba, all in Niger State.
Makanjuola stated that the quantum of power generated in the country has risen from about 3,200Megawatts of two weeks ago to 3,917.1MW as of July 30.
“This means that the nation is a heartbeat away from the historic 4,400MW it generated last January and which the national transmission grid was interestingly able to wheel effortlessly”, he remarked.
Giving a breakdown of how about a capacity of 700MW was recovered, the leader of electricity consumers said that the Shiroro power plant, which was working for only three hours in a day when the near drought in neighbouring countries like Mali resulted in low water levels at the dams, now generates 500MW from three units while Jebba generates 322MW from four out of six installed units because the fifth has been out of service for several years and the sixth undergoing retrofitting.
Mkanjuola noted that only 63MW is being generated from the 760MW Kainji station built in 1968 because of poor maintenance and praised Prof Nnaji for working in close collaboration with the World Bank to rehabilitate some of its units.
On the thermal plants, the engineer said that the improvement in gas supply has enabled the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) facility at Olorunsogo in Ogun State to run four out of the seven installed units with each producing 38MW while that of the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) generates 120MW from one of the four commissioned units.
He also said that the NIPP plant at Geregu in Kogi State now generates 140MW from two units and that of Omotosho in Ondo State produces 120MW.
“With the condensate problem in gas supply to the Sapele power plant in Delta State now being solved,” according to Makanjuola, “coupled with an increasing gas supply from the NNPC, the nation can only expect greater power supply across the nation in the near future”.
The NAECN coordinator observed that Prof Nnaji's promise of a 1,000MW increase by the end of the year “is too conservative”, saying “studies we have carried out show that electricity supply will increase by 1,500MW which will bring the national output close to 6,00MW.
“In other words, the nation will have about 9,000MW by the end of 2013, doubling whatever we have generated in our national history thus far”.
Makanjuola praised efforts to improve the transmission infrastructure in recent times.
“The repair, rehabilitation and modernization of the transmission facilities have made it possible for the transmission infrastructure to have the capacity to transport 5,000MW., a long leap from August 2010 when the system collapsed under the weight of a mere 3,800MW.”