Century Power to Generate 1,500MW

Century Power, a subsidiary of the Obijackson Group, has announced plans to generate 1,500 megawatts of electricity.

The company in a statement explained that the plant will be built in three phases at the Century Power Generation Plant in Okija, Anambra State, beginning with 495MW, expected to be completed in 2020.

The company’s Managing Director, Dr. Chukwueloka Umeh, in a panel discussion at the MIT Energy Conference in the US last week, said the challenges confronting the power sector in Nigeria are surmountable and are being addressed by private sector initiatives.

“There are challenges facing each facet of the power value chain in the country, starting from gas generation all the way to electricity distribution, and in order to fix these, significant investment is needed.

“A large part of this investment will come from local and foreign investors, but the government must create favorable conditions in all these sub-sectors to ensure influx of these desperately needed investments. It cannot be business as usual,” he maintained.

He explained that Nigerians are entrepreneurial but must have the right infrastructure to unlock the potential that the country has been debating about for decades.

‘‘It is easy to see that we export timber, but import toothpicks simply because we do not have a steady and reliable supply of electricity to allow SMEs manufacture goods locally at competitive prices, thereby creating jobs for the growing unemployed population.

“The population worries about tariff increases, but do not realise that they actually pay much higher tariffs by generating their own power with petrol or diesel powered generators,” he disclosed.

On renewable energy, he said what Nigeria needs are large base load plants, with the capacity to generate 100MW and above, stating that renewable are essential to help preserve the environment, while sources such as hydro are good to have in the power mix.

Source: NigeriaToday