Yemie Adeoye 08 August 2013, Sweetcrude, Lagos – Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo has commended Siemens, an active player in the Nigerian power sector, for its role in the development of the sector.
The minister disclosed this at the recent power generation forum organised by Siemens and the Ministry of Power, which discussed typical challenges being faced by Independent Power Plant, IPP, developers in Nigeria’s nascent electricity market.
“Siemens is a committed strategic development partner to the Ministry of Power and this collaborative effort is intended to stimulate project development efforts by the private sector that will impact positively on the development of power sector infrastructure in Nigeria,” Prof. Nebo said at the event, which is the 2nd edition of the IPP Forum.
Nigeria is currently faced with a huge electricity supply gap with between 3,000 megawatts, MW, and 4,000MW of power available for a population of about 170 million people.
In 2010, the Federal Government introduced wide ranging reforms to privatise the existing government-owned utility companies and also to set in place commercial and regulatory mechanisms to attract private investments in the sector.
Alongside the successful completion of the ongoing privatisation exercise, it is clear that the future and success of Nigeria’s Power sector lies in the giant strides which green field Independent power production will deliver in the coming years.
According to Mr. Lothar Balling, Executive vice president, GT Power Plant solutions, “Independent power producers will provide the much anticipated solution to bridging Nigeria’s huge power generation deficit which has been created over the years”.
In attendance at the workshop were the Minister of Power, representatives from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission and the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company as well as prospective IPP developers.
In total, about 120 participants were in attendance. Keynote presentations were delivered by Siemens executives, including Mr. Lothar Balling, Mr. Michael Lakota, MD/CEO Siemens Limited Nigeria; Mr. Marcus Weber, Sales Manager Power Plants Africa; Mr. Patrick Thomas, Sales Manager GT Service Africa and Ms. Doris Henrich, Manager, Siemens Financial Services.
Siemens said it is committed to the development of the electricity sector in Nigeria and has been delivering sustainable solutions towards the nation’s infrastructure development and economic prosperity for over 50 years.
The company built the 434MW Geregu I power plant and has also worked with several manufacturing companies to build captive power plants across the country.
The Geregu Phase II project has also been successfully completed and commissioned in May 2013.
