‘Mambilla Power Station Can Add 3,000mw To Grid’

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, has revealed that the Mambilla Power Station in Taraba State has the potential of adding 3000MW of power to the national grid on completion. He stated this while delivering his speech at the recently held conference of the National Association of Energy Correspondents. Having made excuse to digress from the themeof the day which was, ‘Gas To Power: Challenges and Opportunities “, the minister noted that though gas is a major source of energy, it alone cannot be sufficient for the achievement of “ Incremental Power” under the Roadmap for Change strategy of the ministry. “Mambila Power Station, for example, is likely to be our most defining in the road to incremental power. Situated in Taraba State, it will potentially add 3000MW to the grid and yetthis is a Hydro-Electric project, not gas,’ he said. Describing the roadmap as effective, the minister said, ‘It is a process driven road map that focuses on the problems and seeks to solve them in a pragmatic way. ‘In the short period between when we started work in November 2015 and February of this year, our generating capacity rose to 5,074 MW, the highest we have ever generated as a nation. ’According to him, the upward trend would have continued but for the vandalisation of the Forcado pipeline among others which led to a drastic drop by over 2000 MW. He said this administration is not out to make promises regarding how many mega watts it will generate at a given time as was characteristic of past governments which never came to past, but would work round the clock and pursue a holistic approach to achieve the incremental, stable and uninterrupted power supply to Nigerians.On why past governments failed, he explained: “The reality is that we have had a government -driven monopoly of power dating back to 1950 when it was known as the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN) to National Electricity Power Authority of Nigeria (NEPA) and later Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) up to November 2013. ”In those 63 years, between 1950 and 2013, doyou know what our maximum generation was? 4000MW. ’The minister also explained that diversifying sources of power is a core part of the holistic approach. “The ministry has recently publicised our Energy Mix, and coal forms a large part of our target fuel source. On this note, I am pleased tosay that the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) is working on a suitable tariff for coal-to-power that that will form the basis of a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). “Solar and other renewable energies will also play a major role in our roadmap to incremental power. We have recently signed 14PPAs for the delivery of 1,125MW of solar power. “Other renewable energy projects, such as the 10MW wind plant in Katsina, are also in various stages of completion,” he explained.