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FG expects massive cuts in MSMEs expenditure on electricity

By BusinessNews Staff on April 1, 2015

The federal government has said that it expects to see Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) across the country spend less of their income on electricity as it begins to commission for operation power plants constructed under the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPPs).

It said that with the NIPPs plants gradually coming on stream, MSMEs in the country should expect to reduce their expenditure on power by half.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who stated this when he inaugurated the first phase of the 1074 megawatts (MW) combined cycle Alaoji power plant which was built under the NIPP framework, noted that the focus of his government was on the growth of MSMEs, hence, the need to provide them with the necessary economic enablers.

“Power is key to development and without power micro, small and medium enterprises cannot do well and that is the focus of this administration.
If small businesses will generate their own power, then their returns will be minimal and their turnover will be too low, that is why we are totally committed to providing them power and promise that the second phase will be completed.
We will work together to transform this country, we will work together to move this country forward,” Jonathan said.

The president also noted that it was necessary for the country to continue to welcome more investments in the power sector for more power to be available to homes and businesses, adding that but for his intervention in 2007, the Alaoji power plant could have been abandoned when a report falsely indicted it.

He said: “Inaugurating this 504MW today is a moment I will always remember because as mentioned by the minister of power, while as a vice president, there was a report about this project and the government was to abandon the project because the information that got to us was disturbing but I insisted on inspecting this physically because if government has put in so much money in the project, how do we just abandon it and so I came here and observed that the report was different and we had to continue with the project.”

The first phase of the Alaoji power plant is a 504MW gas fired plant, comprising of four gas turbines units of 126.1MW capacity each and located adjacent to the existing Alaoji 330kV transmission station owned by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

Located at Umuobasiukwu, Alaiyi of Abia State, the 504MW now brings to the total power generation contribution of the NIPPs to 2188MW so far. The government had recently commissioned the Olorunsogo phase 2, Omotosho and Geregu NIPP plants.

Also speaking, the Managing Director of NDPHC, James Olotu stated that construction work on the outstanding 570MW steam turbines is continuing and when completed, will bring the entire capacity of the Alaoji power plant to 1,074MW, the largest among the 10 NIPP power stations.

Olotu also explained that power from the plant will be wheeled out via Alaoji-Owerri-Onitsha transmission loop and the ongoing Alaoji-Ikot Ekpene 330kV double circuit lines to the rest of the country’s grid system, while gas supply to the plant is currently from Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and Accugas.

Additional gas supplies are also expected from Total soon. At full capacity, the Alaoji plant is designed to consume approximately 230 million standard cubic feet (mscuf) of gas per day for power generation.

[ThisDay]

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