The federal government has assured Nigerians that before the end of 2019, more electricity will be generated and injected into the national grid to boost power supply in the country.
According to a statement in the Power Newsletter Vol. 2, No. 83 released on Friday, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo gave the assurance at the official commissioning of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company’s (NDPHC) new 2×60MVA, 132/33KV substation and associated 132KV transmission lines in Abeokuta, Ogun State last week.
With the month of August rolling gradually away, only the 4 “ember” months are left in 2019.
Osinbajo, who also expressed the need to change the hitherto power generation and supply strategy, noted with regret that despite the availability of about 8,000MW of generation and 7,000MW of transmission capacity, the lack of distribution infrastructure to absorb and deliver grid power to end-users had largely restricted generation to an average of about 4,000MW with a peak at about 5,400MW.
Reassuring Nigerians that the federal government was committed to ensuring effective and cost reflective power supply in the country, the Vice President commissioned the 2×60MVA, 132/33KV relief substation for Abeokuta, line bay extension works at Otta, Papalanto and old Abeokuta 132/33KV substation.
He said: “This commissioning is an important part of government effort to improve supply and quality of power to homes and businesses in Nigeria. In the past few years, resolving the power problem has been top priority of government.
“Today, we have about 13,427MW installed capacity and available capacity of 8,342MW. This was achieved through the effort of government and private sector partnership on rehabilitation of turbines in Shiroro, Egbin, Delta, Sapele, among others”.
“It is evident that despite all efforts that has been put into trying to expand the grid, the structure of the market today cannot deliver on government’s promises to provide power for domestic and industrial use. A substantial change of strategy is necessary. What we have done in the past has taken us to a point where there is clearly a need for change of strategy.’’
NDPHC’s chief executive officer, Chiedu Ugbo, said the new 2×60MVA, 132/33KV substation of Abeokuta, when fully on stream, would provide reliable power off-take via six 33KV distribution feeders to the State capital, Abeokuta and its environs.
Explaining further, Ugbo said that the 1×60MVA transformer at Otta would provide additional power supply via three 33KV feeders to Otta and its environs, and that the project would impact positively on power supply to Abeokuta, Otta axis and Papalanto.
“The Abeokuta substation has also been equipped with 2 x 40MVA, 132/33KV transformers to supply power to Abeokuta and its environs,” he added.
