Plans are underway to pull Nigeria out of her current power doldrums through the supply of electricity from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The development follows a plan to build the world’s largest and most powerful hydroelectric dam in the DRC.

The plan was unveiled in London at the ongoing meeting of the World Energy Council, during which financiers and African politicians looked at how to finance the $80bn Grand Inga project.

The project, which would be built on the Congo River alongside two existing hydroelectric plants, is expected to begin operating between 2020 and 2025.

Power will be transmitted to other countries via a giant new distribution system to Egypt in the north, Nigeria in the west, and to South Africa, in line with the proposal to use the Grand Inga project to help an estimated 500million Africans without access to electricity.

The new dam is expected to generate twice as much energy as China’s Three Gorges dam, with a capacity of 18,200 MW, which would come on stream by 2009.

Nigeria’s biggest power plant is the Egbin Thermal Plant, Lagos, with a capacity of 1,320MW, but is generating less than half its capacity due to inadequate gas supply and ageing plant equipment.

In order that construction can start as planned in 2014, the World Energy Council is calling for finance for a feasibility study to be done as soon as possible.

“We have to raise the level of access to commercial energy all through Africa and other parts of the world where poverty is faced,” the Secretary-General, WEC, Gerald Doucet, told the BBC.

“We can’t do it without building these projects, but of course, on a sustainable basis that takes into account the social, civil and environmental issues.

“And I can say that in the past, mistakes have been made, but WEC is here to make sure those mistakes are not repeated,” Doucet said.

The existing Inga Dam is located 250km south west of Kinshasa.

Meanwhile, the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, one of the 18 successor companies to the National Electric Power Authority, may lose its operating licence if the harshest punishment is pronounced against it by the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission.

NERC is hearing a case against the distribution company in respect of the electrocution of a minor at its substation at Sirakoro Street , off Blantyre Street Wuse Abuja on April 18, 2007.

But at the first hearing of the case on Tuesday in Abuja, AEDC, represented by two attorneys, Mr. Isaac Okpanachi and Justin Dodo, insisted that NERC was not legally qualified to arbitrate the matter because the commission had investigated the case and issued orders to their client on the matter.

The electricity company also asked three out of the six commissioners of NERC, who comprised the panel, to disqualify themselves from hearing the case because they had had prior knowledge of the matter and, as such, could be biased in their handling of the case.

A notice of hearing obtained by our correspondent, indicated that after being notified of the electrocution of Miss Aisha Fadeyi, NERC conducted a preliminary investigation into the incident and discovered that the substation was not cordoned off, but rather exposed in such a way as to endanger lives.

The notice further read, “The Commission directed the respondents to immediately fence round the substation to prevent future occurrences.

“Thereafter, the Commission caused a more detailed investigation into the incident and it was discovered amongst other findings that the substation was not properly protected as directed.”

The notice noted that the Commission further directed the company to clear the bushes and the trees in the substation, construct a barbed wire fence and fit a gate from the walkway; compensate the family of the victim for the loss and carry out an audit of their substations in Abuja and come up with a programme of making them secured.

According to the notice, the respondent in a letter dated July 31, 2007, claimed that it had carried out the directives as well as enlightening members of the public on the danger of going too close to power installations.

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