FG to complete 47 transmission projects, says Fashola

The federal government is set to boost electricity supply with the completion of 47 ongoing transmission projects across the country, Power, Works and Housing Minister, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has said.

A statement from the ministry said Fashola, while fielding questions on Channels TV ‘Sunrise Daily’ programme earlier in the week said that, “There is a plan to complete 47 transmission projects in this year’s budget and I believe we can do it even if the budget is passed tomorrow.”

He said government was working towards raising a mix of power sources. “In the last four weeks, we have approved a framework to start licensing about 14 solar power projects. Cumulative power from all is about 1,286mw,” Fashola said.

The minister, who recently visited the Oji River power station in Enugu State, said the government was considering revamping the only coal power station in the country that had long fallen into dilapidation.

Fashola said of the 25 power plants in the country, only three were hydro-powered with the rest gas powered, adding that because of the low pricing of the product for local consumption, the production was low.

He also spoke on the present challenges of gas-to-power saying, “The power being generated comes from about 78 out of 140 turbines and they are largely fired by gas. Now the power has gone down because we have gas outage in one of the gas pipelines.”

Power generation according to reports from the Nigeria System Operator (NSO) yesterday stood at 3,211 megawatts (mw). It had crashed to 2,116mw on Tuesday.