FG committed to delivering effective power supply to Nigerians – Osinbajo

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday reassured Nigerians that Federal Government was committed to ensuring effective and cost reflective power supply in the country.

Osinbanjo gave the assurance during the official inauguration of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) new 2×60MVA, 132/33KV substation and associated 132KV transmission lines in Abeokuta, Ogun.

It was reported the vice president inaugurated the 2×60MVA, 132/33KV relief substation for Abeokuta; line bay extension works at Otta, Papalantoro and old Abeokuta 132/33KV substation.

According to Osinbajo, this commissioning is an important part of government effort to improve supply and quality of power to homes and businesses in Nigeria.

“In past few years, resolving the power problem has been top priority of government of Nigeria.

“Today, we have about 13,427 megawatts installed capacity and available capacity of 8,342 megawatts.

“This was achieved through the effort of government and private sector partnership on rehabilitation of turbines in Shiroro Egbin, Delta, Sapele, among others,” he said.

He assured Nigerians that before the end of 2019, new generation was expected to be injected into the national grid to boost and increase power supply in the country.

Osinbajo said the distribution capacity in the 11 Discos were significantly low, hovering at around 4,000 megawatts on average with a peak at about 5,400MW.

He added that despite all the availability of about 8,000MW of generation and 7,000MW of transmission capacity, the lack of Disco infrastructure to absorb and deliver grid power to end-users had largely restricted generation to an average of about 4,000MW, and sometimes even falling below 4,000MW.

“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. There is clearly need for a change of strategy.

“What we have done in the past has taken us to a point where there is clearly a change of strategy,” he said.

The Chief Executive Officer of the NDPHC, Mr Chiedu Ugbo, said he the new 2×60MVA, 132/33KV substation of Abeokuta, when fully come on stream, would provide reliable power off-take via six 33KV distribution feeders to the state capital (Abeokuta) and its environs.

He explained further that the 1×60MVA transformer at Otta would provide additional power supply via three 33KV feeders to Otta and its environs.

Besides, Ugbo underscored the importance of the projects and said they would impact positively on power supply to Abeokuta, Otta axis and Papalanto.

“NDPHC’s contribution to the tansmission grid system has transformed the hitherto radial 330Kv/132KV grid into a more robust grid system with significant provision of alternative power flow routes which now serve as redundancies and which has resulted in a more reliable and stable Nigeria grid.

“Of note in these respects are the commissioning of the over 220KM long 330KV Double Circuit (DC) lines providing alternative supply route into Abuja and the FCT from Geregu.

“Through a new Lokoja substation, a new Gwagwalada substation into the existing TCN Katampe and Apo substations with several significant expansion works on existing substation developments along this route,” he said.

Agbo said electricity supply to those parts of Ogun along the axis of Otta right up to Abeokuta the state capital were initially via a double circuit 132kV line into Otta, from the mega 330/132/33kV transformer substation at Ikeja west which serves as a marshalling station for several power plant inflows into Lagos.

*A 2X40MVA 132/33kV substation was built at this Otta location for supply to Otta and environs.

“Out of Otta, a single circuit lower capacity 132kV line was built to connect Abeokuta via an intermediate 132/33kV Substation at Papalanto within the premises of Lafarge Cement Company.

“The Abeokuta Substation was also equipped with 2X40MVA 132/33kV Transformers for suppling Abeokuta and its environs.

“Over time, all these facilities became overloaded and lacking capacity to cater to growing demands in these locations, necessitating NDPHC intervention.

“A schematic overview of the old status and NDPH intervention is attached for visual clarity,” he added.

The NDPHC boss said the company constructed a total of 77.5kms high capacity 132kV transmission Lines, thus providing near quadrupling of the supply (wheeling) capacity out of Otta (from 70MW to 250MW) and thereby eliminating supply constraints and attendant load shedding that had existed before at Otta, and Abeokuta.

He said that additionally, the NIPP 2X60MVA 132/33kV Substation at New Abeokuta provided reliable 6nos. 33kV distribution feeders to Abeokuta environs, while the added 1X60MVA 132/33kV Transformer at Otta provided additional 3nos. 33kV feeders to Otta environs.

The Managing Director, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Mr Usman Mohammed, said 1.66 billion dollars had been secured from the World Bank and other multilateral financing agencies on network projects.

Usman said the financing was raised for the expansion of the national power grid.

He said the Nigeria Electricity Transmission Project, which sought to redress certain deficiencies and operating constraints of the power transmission system, was financed by the World Bank and was worth 486 million dollars.

“The project is in three stages; two phases have passed pre-qualification state while the third is still on pre-qualification stage.

He said the pre-qualification of the Northern Corridor project being funded by the French Development Agency (Agence Française de Développement) was almost completed.

Mohammed said: “The project will cover the closing of loop in-between Sokoto to Kaura Namoda and Katsina.

“Environmental Impact Assessment is on-going, verification for compensation for the right of way is also on-going. The project loan is 300 million dollars,” he said.

According to him, the Lagos-Ogun transmission project, which is worth $238m, is being financed by Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Usman said the project design, EIA studies, technical studies and resettlement action plan had been concluded.

He said compensation request had been forwarded to the Bureau of Public Procurement for due diligence which was expected to be concluded in the third quarter of the year.