OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — The Niger Delta Power Holding Company says an additional 126 megawatts of electricity will be added to the national power grid latest in December.
The Managing Director, NDPHC, Chiedu Ugbo, in an interview, said the 126 megawatts will be added following the completion of the second gas turbine of the Gbarain Power Station in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
According to him, one of the gas turbines of the Gbarain plant had been finally erected and ready to supply power to the grid.
“The power plant has a name-plate capacity of 252MW. One unit of 126MW is already working; it is the second unit of 126MW that we are completing. This is to happen this year,” Ugbo said.
He explained that the Gbarain Power Station was one of the four power stations hitherto awarded to Rockson Engineering.
“Some of the stations such as Gbarain and Alaoji were partially completed. Some others such as Egbema and Omoku were not completed at all.
“Rockson is in receivership now; so it is insolvent and therefore the NDPHC board gave us directive to terminate (the deal) and we terminated all the contracts,” he added.
NDPHC to boost power supply by 300MW
Although Nigeria targets 25,000MW by 2025, the current generation stands at between 4,000MW and 5,000MW.
NDPHC also announced that it had started the transmission projects connecting Nkalagu-Abakaliki and other distribution projects in Afikpo where the CSP transformers on 11KV lines were installed in Enugu State.
Ugbo said NDPHC was in discussions with the Enugu Distribution Company to enhance power supply to the network through the eligible customer arrangement.
He said this step would address the issue of stranded power in the South-East region and ultimately increase revenue to NDPHC.
According to him, the NDPHC was engaging another contractor to finish the construction of Egbema and Omoku Power Stations.
