NIGERIA’S electricity generation as at last Friday is 7,000 megawatts, the highest in the history of Nigeria, but a large proportion of the power is idle. However, only 5,000 megawatts of power had been utilised, leaving 2,000 megawatts idle.

Babatunde Fashola, minister of power, works, and housing, who unveiled the success story during the 22nd Power Sector Monthly Meeting with power stakeholders and other participants held at the Geregu Power Plc in Ajaokuta, on Monday, complained that only a part of the generation had been put on the grid. “On Friday, December 8, we reached an all-time power production of 7,000 and a great peak supply of 5,155 megawatts, which Nigeria has never produced or generated.

“The last supply was 5074 MW in January 2016, after which we went into a season of disruption of gas supply by militants. It means that our policies and programmes are working, and we are also so now able to evacuate substantially all of that power by transmission,” he said.

According to the minister, the ministry in collaboration with all the stakeholders have created a safe and more conducive environment to gain the confidence of investors in the power sector. Fashola thanked the Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State for hosting the meeting and expressed his gratitude for paying the compensation that was mitigating against the development of the Kabba Transmission Sub-station.

Also, Adeyemi Adenuga, managing director, generation, Geregu Power Plant, said the plant was handed over to a private company on Oct. 1, 2013, adding that the new owners have invested about 94 million dollars into the plant to make it what it is today. “Right now, we can successfully run three units (turbines) comfortably, effectively and efficiently. So, we hope that from this meeting we will get the needed loads for our machine,” he said.

– Dec.  15, 2017 @ 09:29 GMT