The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company, James Olotu has said that there is a disparity between electricity power generated in Nigeria and that transmitted to the consumers.
Mr Olotu, who was a guest on Channels Television’s programme, Sunrise Daily, said under normal circumstance, the power transmitted should be 100 percent of what was generated.
He attributed the disparities between power generated and that transmitted to lack of transmission infrastructure; a problem, he said is already being addressed.
He said, “Transmission should be 100 percent of power generated but we have a little bit less than what it should be.”
Mr Olotu said the absence of adequate transmission equipment results in ‘stranded generation power.”
He described stranded generation power as when electricity power is available “but because our infrastructural development have not reached that level where you have dotted those redundancy, you may not be able to fully 100 percent evacuate them.”
He said to curb this problem the government has started building transmission lines and substations in different parts of Nigeria.
Ambitious 14,000MW By 2013
President Goodluck Jonathan had last year presented a power reform roadmap where it was predicted that by December 2013 Nigeria will be generating 14,000MW of electricity.
This goal seems to be an overestimation because according to Mr Olotu, based on the current statistics, the total power generation by the end of this year will not exceed 9,000MW.
He said, “I think we will get close to 9, 000MW by December this year.”
He said four of the 10 power plants under construction including, Olorunsogo, Sapele, Geregu, and Ihovbor power plants are ready for commissioning and that they will together add about 2000MW to the existing power generation capacity.
