Oscarline Onwuemenyi
11 January 2017, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Minister Of Power Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has remarked that parts of the country that have been thrown into darkness by the last week’s Western gas pipeline fire would see an improvement since the affected pipeline has been repaired.
The Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS) delivering gas to western based power stations was shut down last Tuesday after a fire incident at Okada in Edo state.
The gas pipeline supplies about six Power Generation Companies (Gencos), and has a production capacity of 3,100 megawatts.
The cut in gas supply to the six Gencos caused a power blackout after the national grid collapsed with power generation falling from over 4,000 mega watts to 0.50Mega Watts.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) announced over the weekend that the pipeline was restored and that Olorunsogo power plant in the axis had begun to receive gas.
Also speaking on the newly inaugurated Keffi transmission station, the minister noted that the Transmission Company Of Nigeria (TCN) has disclosed that the project was supported by the World Bank under Nigeria Electricity and Gas Improvement Project (NEGIP).
He said a 486 million dollar loan was secured to support government’s Transmission Rehabilitation and Expansion Project (TREP).
With the strengthening of existing transformers and power lines including the Lagos axis, under the TREP programme, an additional capacity of 3,000 Mega Watts is expected to be added to its current 7,000Mega Watt wheeling capacity in due time.