Electricity Supply: Federal Government Approves N200 Billion For Increasing Gas Supply To GenCos

The federal government has relieved constraints associated with inadequate gas supply by approving N200 billion payment to gas companies for increased supply to Power Generation Companies (GenCos).

The purpose of the approval was to ensure adequate electricity supply especially within the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown as most Nigerians are forced to stay at home.

The Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari disclosed this Wednesday shortly

This formed the high point of a meeting which involved the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari; Minister of Power, Engr. Saleh Mamman, the Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Mr Usman Gur Mohammed and the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), Mr Chiedu Ugbo at the Ministry of Power in Abuja.

According to the GMD of NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari who disclosed this, “The federal government has made payment of over N200 billion for power in the two or three days, this will go a long way in making sure that those payment issues are resolved and we are engaging as government to make sure that those payment issues are fully settled.

“I will visit some of the plants by tomorrow to make sure that any curtailment that is in the system is sorted out and ultimately Nigerians during this period of lockdown will have better access to power.”

On his part, the TCN Managing Director, Mr Mohammed said there is gas availability but there are several power plants that do not have gas supply agreements.

“The suppliers always divert it to other place and from time to time, we always have constraints of gas and that is a big problem to us.

“With this meeting that has taken place and for the fact that the Minister has prevailed on the GMD of NNPC because we are still the same government, to asset in the supply of gas to the power plants, we believe that we are going to have more sustainable power supply going forward especially during this period of COVID-19,” Mohammed noted.

Managing Director of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), Mr Chiedu Ugbo said the NIPP GenCos under his operations will get the gas fund and pay up. “We will soon get our own part of the payment and I assured the GMD of NNPC that as soon as NDPHC is paid, we have our payment vouchers ready, all we will is do is press the button and remit what goes to gas.”

He noted that Calabar NIPP is the only NIPP plant with gas agreement. “Thankfully, the gas was there during this period and we ramped up production. We did 400 megawatts (MW) of power when every other plant was down.”

On the Distribution section, Ugbo said his firm has been intervening by providing 500KVA transformers, wires and cables to replace faulty ones in the networks of the Distribution Companies (DisCos) to ensure there is more access to electricity during this period.

TCN MD also said DisCos need investment to evacuate more power. “The order NERC issued recently is going to assign responsibility on the side of the DisCos for them to be able to pay for capacity that they fail to take. That will compel them to put investment in the network and will compel them to meter customers,” Mohammed said.