ABUJA — MINISTER of Power and Steel, Senator Liyel Imoke, disclosed weekend that the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) is to expend over N30 billion next year on transmission of electricity across the nation. In an interview with newsmen in Abuja he revealed that NEPA in the third quarter of this year raked in N6.3 billion in the third quarter of 2004 as against the N4.8 billion total revenue realised in year 2003.
“On transmission, next year, we are investing over N30 billion to complete the transmission lines to various parts of the country. That will bring in new capacity and new quality of electricity to our country. So, we have very clear programmes that will improve power supply throughout the country. Like I said, the first impact that you will notice, in terms of generation, will come in January 2005. We have reached a stage now when NEPA officials are giving themselves pats on the back for job well done. I heard that NEPA has achieved N6.3 billion in one month without any tariff review and no real increase in generation. When you compare that to the N4.8 billion of 2003, then that is unprecedented. What it means is that there has been improvement in efficiency.
So, there is a lot that has been happening in the power sector”. Very confident that NEPA would meet its target of generating 10,000 megawatts of electricity by year 2007, Imoke who just returned from an investment summit in China said that his Ministry has adopted a strategy to realize this target given to his Ministry by President Obasanjo.
While revealing that more Asian investors are indicating interest to invest in the nation’s power sector he said that, the summit afforded him the opportunity to hold significant of the fruitful discussions with the investors. On private sector participation in power generation, he said that giant oil firms in the country, such as AGIP and Shell, were on the verge of completing their power stations, which would be added to the national grid.
In addition he said: “We have five power stations all commencing in 2004, it is unprecedented in the history of this country. So, there are a number of things that this administration is doing. We also have private sector participation in the power sector.
AGIP, for instance, is bringing power into the national grid in January, Shell is also investing. “I don’t think we should panic whether we can build 2000 megawatts annually or not. What we are doing is that we are building new capacities annually. From the beginning of 2005, NEPA’s capacity will go up and it will continue to go up. There is going to be an extensive programme on distribution. This will see us producing smaller transformers and using them in our system. These transformers will serve fewer customers so there won’t be cases of over-loaded transformers and load-shedding”, he said.
