The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has revealed the state government’s plans to strategically develop industrial layouts away from residential areas to ensure proportionate power supply to help actualize the state’s developmental plans.

Obaseki disclosed this during an interview with journalists in Benin City, Edo State capital.

According to him, “We have developed plans to help overcome the challenges of power distribution to industries, residential buildings and other users. This includes building areas of use, that is, developing industrial parks, housing estates and other clusters that can be directly connected to generating plants.”

He said, “When these plans are fully achieved, the state would have steady power supply to support businesses and other users. With time, Benin City and other towns in the state will be better planned and segregated so that industrial use of power can be separated from domestic use.”

“When this is done, the structural challenges along the chain of generation and distribution will then be reorganised and steady power supply will then be guaranteed,” he said.

He explained that steady power supply cannot be achieved overnight until the structural impediments are addressed, noting, “Even if the issue of generation of power is addressed, efforts must be made to address issues mitigating distribution and transmission.”

Obaseki said, “As long as we have determined people like the developers of Edo Azura Independent Power Plant (IPP), Edo state and Nigeria can become self-sufficient in power supply. As long as there is power generation, we will find a way to get it to users.

“If we have people who know what they are doing like the developers of Edo Azura IPP, we will overcome issues of power supply. In terms of generation, I believe, given the resources available, hydro, thermal and green energy, we can generate all the electricity to power the state and country.”