Nigeria says it has made progress in resolving the country’s debilitating power crisis.
The West African nation has been facing a serious power crisis.
The country’s national electricity grid has collapsed a couple of times this year, causing a nationwide blackout and that, coupled with fuel shortages, has made Nigerians unhappy.
Speaking at a press briefing on Saturday in Abuja, the Minister for Power, Abubakar Aliyu enumerated several steps being taken by the Buhari administration to address the power crisis.
These efforts, according to him, include the restoration of gas pipelines destroyed by vandals and optimising the capacity of power plants.
The Minister added that the Okapi power plant has resumed power generation and is currently contributing an average of 300MW.
According to him, the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc has been directed to enter into fast-track negotiation with NAOC on an interim energy sales agreement to bring the new Okpai Il power plant on the grid, thereby, contributing an additional 4OOMW of generation capacity.
“The “pigging” of the gas pipeline supplying gas to the Odukpani power plant is scheduled for completion on March 21st 2022 thus ramping up generation by about 400MW.
“To optimise the capacity utilisation of the power plants owned by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Ltd (NDPHC), the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has approved a special gas pricing for emergency contracting of gas from the Nigerian Gas Marketing Company Ltd.
“We expect an on-grid improvement of about 800M YV generation capacity from the NDPHC plants.
“In the medium-term, we have agreed with NGPIC (…a subsidiary of NNPC) on the framework for the overhaul of the Okolona gas processing plant, thereby, restoring the full capacity of the 650MW Afam VI combined cycle power plant.
“While the recent spate of system collapse is regrettable, it was a direct consequence of a snap on a 330kV transmission line.
“The mitigation measures for avoiding such incidence of blackouts are being implemented through several interventions including the Presidential Power Initiative.”
The Minister reassured Nigerians that all relevant agencies involved in the restoration of normality in power supply have been charged to act in the context of the emergency state of the industry.
He added that the Federal Ministry of Power would continue to periodically update the nation on the progress made in addressing power challenges in the country.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com