Mohammed Shosanya
16 September 2005
Hopes for increase in electricity supply in the country was rekindled on Teusday as the Managing Director of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria(PHCN), Engineer Joseph Makoju said that a power plant recently established by Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) will add an additional 180 mega watts (MW) of electricity to the national gird next month.
The plant which was commisioned in the 1st of April this year by President Olusegun Obasanjo in Okpai, Delta state, initially added 360mw to the national grid, and has future possibility of expansion to 960mw by doubling the gas turbine units and stem turbine blocks.
Business Trust recalls that the Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) for the plant was signed on February 13, 2001 between the federal government, PHCN, NNPC and Agip.
But Makoju who spoke at the commissioning ceremony of a sub-station at Ajah, Lagos explained that there has been a redoubled effort between his company and NAOC ever since the plant was commissioned with a view to providing capacity for subsequent power generation.
He added that another phase will come to function next month. He put the current national grid capacity at between 3,000 and 3,600, stressing that the federal government is committed to providing uninterrupted power supply.
On the N100billion indebtedness of PHCN, the managing director expressed optimism that the figure will trickle down in no distant future given the superlative performance of his company which he posited has exceeded his expectation.
According to him, the on going reform of PHCN will no doubt chart a roadmap for change which will soon surface in form of divestment of government shares in the company. He further said that the divestment will pave way for the eventual privatisation of the company. "They will come in with more funding to improve the current status of the PHCN. Nigerians would be more empowered for better change in the sector", he said.
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