“There is no contract awarded for N42bn. I got an approval from the Federal Executive Council in December for N38.9bn. We are obliged to pay 15 per cent of the amount in compliance with the PPA. So, in the budget, there was a provision of N9.5bn,” he said.
Fashola informed the president that going ahead with the concession would affect the stability, optimization and continued expansion of the national grid, which, in turn, will affect communication in the country generally.
“The government came up with the N701 billion intervention early last year to ensure that at least, we are able to pay for our gas because with 30 per cent, it could not have been able to pay the gas supply and then maintain our power plant.”
He said, “This is expected to significantly increase the wheeling capacity of the national grid (between 2,000MW to 3,000MW). TCN is already in discussion with World Bank to use the balance under Nigeria Electricity and Gas Improvement Project (NEGIP) to procure the conductors.”
He said, “Generated power has gone up to 7000mw in 2017 from 3,000mw in May 2015; transmission capacity at 6,900mw in 2017 from about 5,000mw in May 2015; and peak distribution now averaging 5,000mw in 2017 from 2,690mw in 2015. In the last three months, we have increased the supply of power in the dry weather and people’s experience with power was better. We must thank the Ministry of Petroleum Resources for the increase in gas supply.”
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.
Sirika said the contract was awarded following the structural challenges encountered in the construction of a new terminal at the airport being handled by a Chinese firm.
He said, “We are also putting together a policy position to help expand the distribution network of the Discos and use this to distribute the 2000MW that is currently available but cannot be distributed.”
He said that the project when completed would expand the scope of supply to the state for the people to have power from the national grid on a regular basis.
Ugbo said that the two 7.5 MVA power transformers at the station would inject 13 megawatts of electricity to the existing supply to Lafia and environs.
