The Federal Government has sunk huge sums of money into the rehabilitation of the Nation’s electricity plants. Over N16.9 billion Naira has so far been provided to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria by the Obasanjo administration, aimed at ensuring an efficient and uninterrupted power supply in the country while 300 project sites have been earmarked for construction but for the high level of corruption scarce leveled against the immediate past government of chief Obasanjo and his cronies.
It is interesting to note that on the 24/2/2001 NEPA signed a 62 million US dollars rehabilitation contract with Marubeni Corporation of Japan to reactivate Delta II and III Thermal Power Stations in Ughelli; Delta state. The company would install six new power-generating turbines to replace the existing obsolete ones. The new turbines would have a combined generating capacity of 150 megawatts. Merubeni is currently executing a rehabilitation work on generating units 6&4 of Egbin thermal power station, Lagos (Ojo, 2002, Onoche, 2002).
Series of plans to deregulate the power sector; the federal Government is inviting private investors to participate in the country’s power generation sector. Eight states in Nigeria have indicated interest to go into Independent Power Production (IPP). The states include Kano, Jigawa, Osun, Bayelsa, Lagos, Rivers, Ekiti and Bauchi state (Ohiorhenuam, 2002). The 1st phase of Lagos state Independent Power Project being provided by US-based Enron Power Company was ready for commissioning by the end of July 2001.
Electricity supply to the country suffered a major set back recently as the NEPA system collapsed, throwing the nation in to darkness. This was caused by low Gas pressure to the Egbin power station (Zubairu, 2002). Gas supply to the power station was cut-off when the bye-pass valve of the gas pipeline failed to open up, thus leading to a cascading effect on the system, shutting down all the power generation. This is a major setback to socio-economic development in Nigeria.
The Authority is working tirelessly to ensure that it achieves the Government target of electricity for all. To ensure this, PHCN will need to add about 1808 megawatts to the National Grid. The additional megawatts would be made out of the existing eight power stations in the country.
The Asea Brown Boveri Limited (ABB) a foreign firm currently participating in the on-going rural electrification of the Abuja Independent Power Project (IPP) would inject 450 megawatts of electricity into the system. Some of the projects the company had executed in Nigeria include the Osogbo Ife/Illesha 132KV transmission, 2×30/40MVA312/33KV Ilesha substations amongst a host of others (Sigmund, 1990).
The Federal Government has chosen firms for the first phase of the schedule 30 megawatts, EPP plant for Abuja. The power project is being handled by Aggreko International Power Project (AIPP) Plc and Geometric Nigeria Limited. The project is split between the two firms both of which are expected to provide 15MW of power each in two phases expected to run concurrently. The Federal Government has so far provided electricity for 189 rural areas at cost of 5.6 Billion Naira since its inception in May 1999. So far, the government allocated 17.6 billion Naira to run power supply 575 of the 774 local Government Headquarters had been connected to the National Grid (Sunday Tribune, 2008).
The first phase of the Lagos State initiated Independent Power Plan (IPP) project expected is to generate an additional 90 megawatts; and was commissioned in June 2001. The second phase which is 450 MW gas turbine power plant estimated to cost 630 million US dollars would soon commence (Sunday Tribune, 2008).
In Nigeria, more and more states and organizations are embarking on setting up their own Independent Power Plants (IPP), 10 of such are currently under construction. Some of the new plants which are at various stages of development include the Enron Power Plant in Egbin Lagos, the Agip Oji Power Projectd in Ughelli, Delta and Rivers IPP in Port Harcourt. Others are state sponsored IPP’s being handled by Ondo, Bayelsa, Kano, Kwarak, Akwa-Ibom, Delta and Edo state (Ohiorhenuam, 2002). PHCN is giving the IPP’s the necessary support to enable them come on stream. The Authority also offers necessary technical advice to speed up the job and ensure its success so that it could stand the test of time. More ways of finding solution to the power generation, distribution and transmission is however still being explored (Ojo, 1994).
With impending conditions like the ever-rising consumer debts, vandalisation of PHCN’s installation, high cost of maintenance, inadequate gas supply, low water level at the hydro power stations, high cost of foreign exchange the abysmally low tariff regime, PHCN has always strived to meet its distribution and marketing of stable electricity to its numerous residential, commercial and industrial customers against all odds. In spite of some of its familiar operational shortcomings, PHCN has made giant strides in the production and marketing of electricity to the nation and beyond (Odife, 1998). A principal beneficiary of PHCN’s extended electricity program is the Republic of Niger under an agreement with Nigerlec (Niger Electricity Company) that country’s electricity monopoly. Similarly, in Sep. 1996, an undertaking was signed between the erstwhile National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) and communaute Electricque Du Benin (CED), which is responsible for production and transportation of electric energy in the Republic of Benin and Togo. This problem of finding solution to generate, transmit and distribute power in the country called for the reform and privatization of PHCN for an enhanced socio-economic development, growth and sustainability in the 21st century.