POWER GENERATION TO RISE BY 1,150 MEGAWATTS IN 2020 – FG
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The Federal Government has stated that Nigeria’s total power generation stock is expected to rise by 1,150 megawatts (MW) between 2019 and 2020.
Minister of power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, had
stated in Lagos, that two power plants – the 700MW Zungeru hydro power plant and 450MW Okpai II gas power plant, would be ready to produce power to the national in the next two years.
He did not state which would come in first, but assured consumers that both would boost the country’s power generation by 1,150MW when they begin to produce.
The minister’s disclosure came at a time the Abuja electricity distribution company (Disco) stated that a preliminary report on the electricity-induced fire that killed a mother and her three children in Niger State did not find it guilty or responsible for the disaster.
In his speech at the Nigeria-South Africa Chamber of Commerce Breakfast Forum in Lagos, Fashola said: “Between 2019 and 2020 (Q1) Zungeru 700MW, Okpai II 450MW, totalling 1,150MW should come into operation.”
He added that: “These do not include about 7,000MW of installed but inoperative power plants that are constrained either by gas supply or transmission capacity or both, about which action is being taken.
“It does not include independent power plants now under construction in nine federal universities with a plan to scale to 37, neither does it include 15 independent power projects targeting major markets now under construction to power 85,000 shops and small businesses.”
He insisted that the federal government under President Muhammadu Buhari, has done well in the power sector, saying: “In summary, incremental capacity is heading in the right direction, we are planning to solve today’s problems, liberalise participation in the sector, and enable private sector undertake the business of generating and distributing power, which it contracted to do with the privatisation programme that took place in 2013.
“The prospects for the future are clear, they portray hope, and I am optimistic that today’s problems represent opportunities in the power sector for tomorrow.”
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