NDPHC To Contribute 4,200MW To National Grid

The National Integrated Power Project, NIPP, of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) is expected to contribute up to 4,200 megawatts to the 9,000MW, which would be available to Nigerians by December.

Speaking at the weekend, during the commissioning of distribution centres in some parts of Lagos, the Managing Director of NDPHC, Mr. James Olotu said, “By December, out of the expected 9,000MW which will be available, NIPP will be contributing about 4,200MW of that or 50 percent of the entire capacity of power available in Nigeria in December.”

Speaking further, Olotu said NDPHC would continuously work to meet the expectations of Nigerians to have uninterrupted power supply in no distant time. “We cannot rest on our oars. The reason is that we have gaps that have been created over the years. The gaps have been so wide and we are just playing catch up.

“We need to catch up quickly and begin to expand. Look at South Africa, it has about 48,000 megawatts. Their population is about 38 million. The country also has about 8,000 megawatts in reserve. Here in Nigeria, we don’t have up to what South Africa has in their reserve and they are continuously building capacity,” he said.

The recent dip in power supply, Olotu said was as a result of shortage of supply as gas producers had to shut down to maintain their facilities.

He, however noted that it wouldn’t be a problem anymore as the contractors handling the gas infrastructure at Egbema, Omoku and Gbaran had assured him that the projects would be completed by August, in order to serve Nigerians better.

The NDPHC boss also argued that going by the level of work being done by his company, more projects would be commissioned in Lagos and other parts of Nigeria.

“As you can see, we have commissioned five projects. This one in Isolo is the biggest of all the projects in Lagos generally. If we leave here, if the way is clement, we will still be commissioning one or two projects. We will be commissioning some more projects.

“We will be going to the biggest injection transmission sub-station in Nigeria, at Oke Aro, a few kilometers from Lagos. It has 2×300 and 2×60 MVA transformers in that location. That is very big indeed. And it is the first one in Nigeria.

“It was done by NDPHC and it is in line with Mr. President’s transformation agenda. We hope that when we leave Lagos, we go to Kaduna, because we have about four projects ready for commissioning. In Kano, we have another four projects for commissioning. Then we will go back to the East. Two weeks ago, we were in the East, where we commissioned seven projects. Every month, it is going to be a harvest.”

Speaking on the advertised NIPP projects, Olotu said about 44 companies showed interest, but certain processes had to be done before the final bids were concluded. One of the processes include a road show that would commence in May, which would take NDPHC to major business cities of the world such as London, New York, Hong Kong, New Delhi and Lagos.

“We are going for a road show sometime in May. We are going to major business cities of the world, London, New York, Hong Kong, New Delhi, and of course, Lagos, which is our flagship business centre in Nigeria. We will invite both the international and local communities to show interest in these projects.

“The basic reason is that government does not want to run these power plants or any of its infrastructures. Government has no business in doing business. The money expended on them so far is huge. Government wants the private sector to bring in their best practices to play in order to ensure that not only the way we deliver power sustainably, but that the delivery will also be qualitative and that Nigerians will have value for these investments for a long period of time.

“Apart from that, all these power plants are open to expansion. It is the private sector with their fund that can assist the government to expand these power plants and give us more megawatts as the years go by,” Olotu said.