By Ediri Ejoh
TheFederal Government has announced plans to establish a 1000 mega watts coal power plant in Enugu state.
The President, Goodluck Jonathan, who disclosed this in Enugu, said the plant is expected to help address the epileptic power situation in the country.
Jonathan, who was represented by Vice President Namadi Sambo, said the plant would complement other electricity projects being executed by the Federal Government and private investors in the area and ensure that Enugu and the rest of the South-east region enjoyed improved electricity supply.
The Federal Government had a couple of weeks ago said the country is capable of generating up to 30 per cent of its energy needs from its coal resources using environmental-friendly clean technology.
Jonathan said the country is endowed with abundant coal reserves of the required quality necessary for power generation.
To this end, the Federal Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Coal to Power for the development of Ezinmo Coal Block in Enugu and a 1000 megawatts coal power generating plant.
The MoU was signed between the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development and HTG-Pacific Energy Consortium for the development of the Ezinmo Coal Bricks.
According to Jonathan, “Nigeria is endowed with abundant coal reserve of the required quality necessary for power generation and there is no reason why we should not explore the sector.”
He added that the signing of the MoU is a sysbol of the growing synergy between the Ministries of Mines and Steel Development and Power to attract investors to coal-fired oil generation opportunities.
“We expect the co-operation to continue until we get the desired destination in terms of our power needs,’’ he said.
Also speaking, Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo, argued that the MoU was on the utilisation of the mining license, granted by the Federal Government for the Ezinmo coal block.
According to him, the license was granted to an indigenous company with a Chinese partner, HTG-Pacific Energy Consortium, for the exploitation and mining of the coal block at Ezinmo.
Continuing, the Minister noted that Ezinmo was a very large coal block which ranged from Enugu State to Benue State.
Nebo said the signing of the MoU, would be followed by Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) that would authorise the investors to build the coal-fired power plant. http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/fg-establish-1000mw-coal-power-plant-enugu/

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story...political talk

I will advise the Government to stop signing Memorandum of Understanding and issuing certificate of intent without studying the capacity of these investors to deliver but to devise more binding protocols to achieving its development plans.

You will only understand how injurious these abandoned MoUs are to the citizens if a woman/man has broken your heart and toy with your emotions first hand

What is wrong with this FG. Every time they keep on deceiving Nigerians with future tens and "future continuous tens". FG will, FG is planning to, FG shall, etc.
Let us know when the project is completed! If it is corruption they will be fast to complete the deal.
$ 9.3m seized in SA is enough to build this stuff. Isn't it?

THE AIR IS ALWAYS FRESH!. IT WILL BLOW AWAY EVERY INCUBI AND DOWN FALL SEEKERS THAT MAY ARISE AGAINST THIS PROJECT AMEN.

I love hearing this kind of deal when it is completed... too much story is not good.

Old news,The MoU was signed a year ago and up till now nothing has happened and now they are passing this again as news.
HTG consortium has no pedigree in coal energy technology, An MoU with HTG,a company that lacks capacity is akin to giving out the coal minning rights to companies that lack capacity to mine the coal. Govt should be doing business with credible companies not all this political consortiums formed by corrupt politicians/friends of corrupt politicians. http://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2013/08/19/nigeria-signs-3-7b-coal-mining-and-power-plant/

Make i come first

federal government to, soon, about,on and planning etc. I want to hear commission

If Jonathan had planned and began execution of this project since 2010 when he took over office, he would have surely had a good reason to seek the votes of south easterners. A simple question I always ask my people, "what has this administration really done for the south east to deserve the kind of massive support it gets?"

This is a good development. Nigeria should be able to use all its available abundant resources, gas, coal, sun and wind to generate electricity. Kudos to the FG.