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Non-performing power firms will lose licences – FG

By BusinessNews Staff on February 11, 2014

In a bid to stem the rising power outages across the country, the Federal Government has declared that it will withdraw the operational licences of poorly performing power firms.

According to the government, the new owners of the privatised successor firms to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria should start providing electricity to their consumers as stipulated by their licences.

The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, told our correspondent in Abuja on Sunday that the government had made it clear to the investors that they would lose their licences if they performed poorly.

Asked if the investors were financially capable of running the companies, Nebo said, “Well, it is difficult for me as the minister of power to answer that question. However, I think that on paper, they are capable.

“On the ground, it will be left for the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, which regulates them, to make sure that they are fulfilling what they showed us on paper that made the government to sell these companies to them. This is because it is one thing to see something on paper and another thing to see reality.

“So, I can’t answer that question other than to say they have shown us a beautiful picture on paper and we believe them. But it is now left for them to show us that everything they told us they were going to do they will do.

“The NERC is there to monitor them and make sure they deliver; otherwise, their licences will be in jeopardy. They could lose their licences. They have to really perform and if they don’t, their licences will go.”

Power supply across many states in the country has been very erratic in recent weeks, a development allegedly caused by pipeline vandalism and rot in the system.

However, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Sunday said it had completed repair works on sections of the sabotaged Escravos-Lagos gas pipeline network.

The acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Dr. Omar Ibrahim, said the repair works, which ended the almost seven months of gas supply stoppage caused by wilful hacking of the pipeline in Delta State, would enable the re-injection of almost 200 million cubic feet per day of gas into the grid.

Ibrahim also noted that the corporation had last week completed repair works on the pulverised Trans-Forcados pipeline, which accounts for 230mmcf/d of gas, the equivalent of 805MW of electricity.

[Punch]

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