FG to generate 7000mw soon

Akande said this when he appeared on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja that government was working assiduously to step up power generation from 5000mw to 7000 mw.

He said that the country began to experience low electricity supply due to pipeline vandalism and the bombings in the Niger Delta region.

"When the administration came in as a matter of fact we were doing less than 300mw.

“So we were not doing 5000 mw when we came in; actually, we were the ones that took it to 5000 mw for the first time in the history of this country.

“In February, we took it to 5000 mw but unfortunately it was that same February that the bombing of the oil pipelines started, so it brought down the output.

“So, what is being done now is what is called incremental power to try to see how we can in different ways increase the output in power.

“So a lot of transmission facilities and infrastructure for power are being rejuvenated, trying to tap more from gas.

“So, you are going to be seeing more of gas-to-power, government is rejuvenating quite a number of them, " he said.

He said that the Federal Government had signed Memorandum of Understanding with companies that would supply gas that would ultimately increase the output to 500 mw.

Akande said that by rejuvenating some of the transmission facilities and infrastructure government was doing what is called “incremental power" in order to bring up the megawatt.

He said government would be carrying these processes in the geo-pollical zones of the country in order to provide constant and sustainable electricity to the people.

“We are doing what is called “incremental power ," try and bring up the megawatt output, we believed that very soon we will be doing about 7000mw as power is critical to economic growth of country.

“Government is working, it is one of the areas we are working very diligently on a daily basis to sort out the problems,’’ he said.

He said that there were plans also by government to effect public, private partnership to ensure that Mambila project came on stream in power generation.

On the issues of idle power plants Akande explained that the truth was that “a lot of those plants, facilities are just there and not being utilized.

“The power plants are all disconnected and we are trying to fix them so that the plants will bring significant increment to the output.

“So, government is trying to see how this problem can be solved and we believed that there would be an improvement in power sector,’’ he said.