Daily Independent Online.
*
Tuesday, August 24, 2004.
NEPA’s
unbundling won’t cause job loss, says spokesperson
Stories by Chuks Isiwu,
Energy
Editor, Lagos
The National Electric
Power Authority (NEPA) says its ongoing restructuring process, which has led to
the authority being unbundled into three companies, would not lead to loss of
jobs for its employees.
NEPA’s Assistant
General Manager, Public Affairs, Mrs Efuru Igbo, dropped the hint in Lagos,
maintaining that the unbundling of the power company was rather creating more
jobs.
Stating that those, who
would lose their jobs in the process of the restructuring would be “those
who don’t know what they are doing”, she said: “NEPA staff
won’t lose their jobs as a result of the unbundling. More jobs are rather
being created. New positions are being created. Anybody, who knows what he or
she is doing won’t lose his or her job”.
The spokesperson, who
also maintained that the restructuring of the authority was being done as a
prelude to its privatisation, added that the move would put it on a good stead
to bring increased efficiency to bear on its operations.
As part of the
unbundling process, NEPA’s operations have been segmented into distinct
business units made up of 11 distribution companies, (DISCO), six generation
companies (GENCO) and one transmission and systems operations company
(TRANSYCO).
The DISCO begun
operations as semi-autonomous business units early January, this year, while
the TRANSYCO began operations in April. The GENCO is scheduled to be unbundled
later in the year.
A NEPA source, who
spoke of the success of the new arrangement and its effects on the performance
of the authority, stated that mainly as a result of the development, the
authority’s power generating capacity stabilised at between 2,500 and
3,000 mega watts in the first half of the year.
Revenue collection,
which had remained a major problem, according to the source, has also improved
appreciably. The authority maintains three hydro and six thermal power stations
with a combined capacity to turn out 5,996 mega watts, with the hydro stations,
contributing 1,938 mega watts and the thermal stations, accounting for the
balance of 4,058 mega watts.
The hydro stations are
Jebba, commissioned in 1985 with 578 installed capacity; Kainji, built in 1968,
with 760 mega watts and Shiroro, commissioned in 1990, with an installed
capacity of 600 mega watts.
The
thermal stations are Ijora, built with a capacity to turn out 60 mega watts;
Afam, 971 mega watts; Sapele, 1,020 mega watts; Delta, 912 mega watts and
Egbin, 1,320 mega watts.
