POWER: 5000MW by December 2012 is unrealistic

Chairman of the NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi has said that it was unrealistic to expect more than 5000MW by December and urged Nigerians not to be too hopeful about the recent improvement, stating that a massive haulage of power will come in the near future. He said this in an e-conference on power sector reforms, organised by Spaces for Change, a human rights organization.

Amadi said that power generation will drop by 300 megawatts after rainy season and this will partly cancel the improvement in electricity supply experienced recently in some parts of the country. Chairman of the NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi, said the recent improvement had been due to repairs of some power plants and high water volume occasioned by the rainy season.

 According to him, “the current improvement in generation is because of repairs on plants which resulted in the recovery of lost capacity, and of course, the rise in rainfall has helped us to recover about 200 to 300MW lost during the dry season”.

Amadi also noted the bane of the power sector has been corruption, which had continued to undermine the investments made in the sector. He said, but for corruption, the National Integrated Power Project initiated by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration would have provided at least an additional 5000MW of power.