NEPA Doubles Power Supply
By Chinazor Megbolu
The Managing Director of National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), Engineer Joseph Makoju, has said the power utility doubled its electricity supply in the past six years.
Makoju said elctricity generation had increased to around 4,500 mega watts (MW) now from 2,000 MW in 1999. The end product, that is, electricity supply, averaged is around 3,000 MW from 1,700 MW within the same period.
This development he said, "could be seen by anybody who understands electricity power production economy anywhere in the world.
"It takes three to four years to build a power plant and sometimes up to five years to build a transmission line. The goodness is that, a lot of investment was already going on which if continued, the impact will be felt in the next two to three years", he said.
On reliability of power supply in the country, the NEPA MD stated that the six years into President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration, has identified the need to getting electricity supply up to a certain minimum capacity of stability for the revival of the economy. To him, "the investment made has yielded some fruit", he said.
On the problem facing NEPA, Makoju said that the demand for electricity has always been higher than supply. This disequilibrium he said has been NEPA's concern over the years. He stated that, "what we have been trying to do has been to see how the infrastructure can be expanded to eventually close up this gap and indeed stabilise the supply."
On the issue of sustainable power supply, Makoju said that in other countries, most electricity sectors are privately owned and not managed by the government and also added that Nigerian Government has agreed to disengage from managing NEPA. According to him, "the process is being systematic, which involved making the sector attractive to investors who will come and take over the running of the sector, the result which will be a power sector that makes the standard of other parts of the world", he said.
The Federal Government has already rolled out incentives to attract foreign investors into the power sector in the bid to meet the target of raising electricity generation level in the country to 10,000 mega watts (MW) by 2010.
Also, the unbundling of the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA's) eight power stations into six electricity generating companies (Gencos) will be completed by the fourth quarter of this year.
The package of incentives, which the government hoped would fetch the much needed foreign direct investment into the sector include tax holidays, exemption from duty taxes in imported equipment, capital and investment allowances, which can be carried forward and used after tax holiday period.
They also include implementation of a tariff adjustment mechanism that will cover cost of production and provide adequate returns on investment as well as the establishment of transmission infratructure that would create a level playing field for private sector operators.
The private sector is particularly being wooed to take advantage of gas power projects in the country as well as the development of the Mambilla Hydro Power Project with an estimated generating potential of 10,000 MW.
Meanwhile, NEPA said the award of the N68 million billing software acquisition contract followed due process.
NEPA's General Manager, Public Affairs, Mrs. Efuru Igbo, said as at the time of selecting the software, all proposals available to NEPA were foreign developed, and presented by local companies and that most locally developed software were for small applications and not for complex calculations of a utility like NEPA.
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