By Adaobi Rhema Oguejiofor
The Federal Government through the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) has signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with utility companies in order to distribute a total of about 250 Mega Watt (MW) across the country.
A report issued by NDPHC revealed that the power sale transactions have been signed since the inception of the ‘Light Up Nigeria’ programme currently running under the Vice President, Kashim Shettima.
The Disco off-takers include, the Eko Electricity Distribution (EKEDC), Compagnie d’Energie Electrique du Togo, Sunflag Steel Industries Limited, Lagos, Wewood Limited, Ondo State, APLE Electric Limited, and Pulkit Alloy & Steel Limited, Lagos, among others.
NDPHC said that the goal of the programme was to sell the current capacity available, and develop more, and that the power generation projects were all funded through the Excess Crude Account properly appropriated by the FG and the States between 2005 and 2009.
Despite the foregoing achievements of an installed capacity of about 4000MW, NDPHC expressed that its operations are hampered by a number of systemic challenges, which have significantly affected its cash flow. The Company listed some of the challenges, such as transmission constraints, gas supply and transportation constraints to guarantee generation up to TCN-allocated evacuation capacity of 975MW, let alone full capacity of its power plants.
NDPHC currently has 10 power plants, however, it revealed that Calabar is the only plant with full gas supply.