[size=18pt]10,000mw target not feasible till Dec 2014, says minister[/size]

THERE is a growing uncertainty over the Federal Government’s target of generating 10,000 megawatts of electricity.

Indications from the Ministry of Power have it that March 2014 may no longer be feasible as the target date. Probably cognisant of the need to adopt a rather ‘safe’ position, the Minister of State for Power, Hajia Zainab Kuchi, said Thursday that the target would now be achieved by December 2014.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has inaugurated a working group to review and come up with a uniform system of accounts for the electricity sector.

The move, according to NERC, is part of the process of developing a uniform accounting framework to facilitate the review and analysis of the licensees’ financial statements.

Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, had told reporters early this month (May 1), that the 10,000 megawatts of electricity initially targeted for December 2013 is not realisable going by realities on ground.

Nebo had stressed that the December 2013 figure, which was bantered by his predecessors and some government officials, is not realistic based on what is currently on ground.

Rather, he said something close to the figure would be realised in December, stressing that 10,000mws would be achieved by the first quarter of 2014 based on a professional and realistic analysis on the sector.

“As an engineer and knowing the realities on the ground, we will achieve this by first quarter of 2014. We need time to achieve some of the targets. We will get close to it, but the truth is that we cannot get 10,000mws by December.”

But reacting to stories in some newspapers (not The Guardian), which quoted her Thursday as telling a committee of the Senate that 10, 000mws would be achievable by December 2013, Kuchi disassociated herself from the reports, stressing that nothing could be farther from the truth as the reports.

She said: “With the processes that we have put in place, the statistics available to us, and the efforts at reforming the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), we will achieve 10,000mws by December next year. Though we are generating up to 7000mws of electricity currently, we are only able to wheel 4000mws because of our poor transmission network.

“By 2014, we will be able to wheel 10,000mw, by which time the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) plants would have come on stream.”

She told reporters that the privatisation programme was on course, stressing the power plants would be handed over to the new owners by July, as government was on course to sort out pending severance packages of electricity workers by June.

Her words: “The claim that the Minister of State for Power said the generation and distribution companies that were bided for last year could not be handed over to successful bidders because the companies were currently not in good shape is also not accurate. In fact, at a recent Presidential Power Signing Summit, several agreements on vesting contracts and gas supply agreements were signed with preferred bidders.

“The preferred bidders, who were fully aware of the status of the companies, expressed total confidence in the privatisation programme and were particularly eager to take over the companies having paid the initial 25 per cent of the bid price.

“So, the statement made by me was that government intends to conclude the fulfillment of the terms of agreement reached with Labour before the handing over to the preferred bides, with a handover timeline of July ending.”

NERC said the system is being developed in consultation with the Financial Reporting Council (formerly Nigerian Accounting Standards Board), agreed on the adaptation of the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) 2009 version of the Uniform System of Accounts (USOA).

A statement from NERC stressed that the draft was discussed with industry participants during two interactive workshops held in November and December 2011 in Calabar and Kaduna.

awodman:
10,000MW Dec 2013 target still realisable

The federal government has disclosed that it will hand over 15 of the successfully privatised successor companies heaved off the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to their winning investors by the end of July 2013.

It explained that the final relinquishment of the companies which has been delayed by the lingering issues relating to settlement of severance benefits of workers of the various companies of PHCN has been scheduled for July following its conclusion of negotiations with members of PHCN labour unions.

Minister of State for Power, Hajia Zainab Kuchi stated this
tHURSday in Abuja while denying media reports that she
had projected an increase in nationwide power generation
and distribution by 6000 megawatts (MW) within the same July 2013.

Kuchi in her remarks, gave clear timelines for the eventual handing over of the various PHCN assets to investors who have variously paid the initial mandatory 25 per cent part payment for the value of the assets; she however did not disclose if the remaining 75 per cent payment has been made by the investors.

The various PHCN assets that had been successfully sold
by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) include 10
distribution companies (Ikeja, Eko, Enugu, Port Harcourt,
Ibadan, Yola, Jos, Abuja, Benin and Kano) and five
generation companies (Shiroro hydro plant, Ughelli thermal plant, Sapele power plant, Kainji hydro plant and Geregu power plant); privatisation of Afam generating plant and Kaduna distribution company are yet to be consummated for reasons relating to alleged manipulation.

“We are finalising on labour, the labour is what is standing between us and the handing over and all the issues that were there had been addressed. We are about to begin payment, as soon as the payments are finalised by June ending, we will definitely be handing over to the successor companies by the end of July; that is the projection we have here and that is the stance of the BPE which has a timeline which was created with the labour issues in mind,” Kuchi said.

While giving further details on the handover timeline, she
stated that: “We have taken over all the problems and
addressed all the issues, the funding is there for the
payment of labour and all we are doing is data
computation and as soon as we are done with that the
handing over will be done.”

She also denied making claims that the successor
companies could not be handed over to the investors for
such reasons relating to their bad shapes, adding that the preferred bidders are aware of the status of the companies while various milestones have been achieved in the privatisation exercise.

Speaking on the status of power generation in the country, the minister said: “Right now we are generating up to 7,000 megawatts but the wheeling power is what we are trying to increase the capacity and we have explained before that this is because of the rot that that sector has suffered; the infrastructure is down and we have been doing a lot of work on it.

“The Niger Delta Power Holding Company is trying so hard in so many instances for the transmission company with the NIPP projects which we have about 10 (transmission projects) that are going to be commissioned.

“So, with all these and the additional funding that we have got from the AfDB and the Euro bond that government just finalised, when these processes and the actual infrastructure that we need to add are in place, come December 2014, we see the possibility of wheeling 10,000 megawatts because we have up to 7,000 megawatts now.”

She alleged that she was quoted out of context on power
generation when she honoured the invitation of the Senate Committee on Power, saying that what she meant was that government will sustain the current power generation capacity, while taking on the challenges of transmission and gas supplies before the end of 2013 through improved funding of needed infrastructure.

Demdem: This is the kind of confusion we get when retardd continues to govern.

otokx: There is still no electricity in University of Port Harcourt and Aluu.

simply_me:

I wonder if anyone still reads what you write. LOL.

simply_me: These journalists are doing us more harm than good. So, December of which year is the first story referring to? Or which story are we to believe?

Demdem:

Very easy for u to blame journalists but not the retardeens ministers that gave conflicting comments. The joke is on u.