FG will commission 8 new power plants to improve national grid in 2018 - Fashola

macfranc007 December 12, 2017 Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Nigerian newspapers 24/7 Nurudeen Lawal

- The minister of power, works and housing, Babatunde Fashola, discloses that 8 new power plants will be commissioned in 2018

- He said the new power plants will add about 1,129 megawatts (mw) of electricity to the national grid

- Adeyemi Adenuga, the managing director of Geregu Power also said that his firm had invested over $94 billion to improve power plant since privatisation in 2013

The minister of power, works and housing, Babatunde Fashola, has said about 1,129 megawatts (mw) of electricity will be added to the national grid when eight power plants are commissioned in 2018.

Fashola said this on Monday, December 11 at the 22nd power sector meeting at Geregu Power Plc in Kogi State, DailyTrust reports.

NAIJ.com gathered that the minister also said that the current 2,000mw is already constrained and will be evacuated before the new capacity comes to the grid.

He said 450mw is expected from Azura Power in Edo, 215mw from Kaduna plant, 40mw from Kashimbilla in Taraba and 29mw from Dadin Kowa in Gombe state.

Others are 30mw from Gurara in Kaduna, 10mw from Katsina wind power, 240mw from Afam III in Rivers and 115mw from Gbarain NIPP in Bayelsa state.

He said all the expected megawatts have to be sold.

He noted: “We cannot afford to keep all these power without selling them; that is not good for the business and for those who have invested in them.”

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Fashola further disclosed that Nigeria attained the highest peak generation of 5,155mw on Friday, December 8 above the 5,074mw attained in February 2016.

He attributed this feat to improvements in gas supply to GenCos which was facilitated by the federal government’s N701 billion Payment Assurance Guarantee (PAG) that enabled GenCos to promptly pay for gas and other services.

He said: “When I visited in 2016, only one turbine was running in each of Geregu I and II plants because there was no gas in all six turbines. Today, all the three turbines in each are running because there is now some gas.”

In his own address, the managing director of Geregu Power, Adeyemi Adenuga, said his firm had invested over $94 billion to improve power plant since privatisation in 2013.

NAIJ.com previously reported that two brilliant Nigerian men did the unthinkable task of constructing a generator that runs without petrol and gas.

The genius engineers identified as Gabriel Obinna and Moses Ezeilegbunam expressed that they decided to build the generator due to the high cost of petrol and inefficient power supply in the country.

According to the young men, the generator which has nine hundred wax capacity can power a ceiling fan, standing fan, television and a table top fridge for forty eight hours without pause.

Nigerian electricity crisis explained - on NAIJ.com TV