Expenditures on NIPPs hit $5b, says NDPHC boss

The aggregate expenditure on the National Integrated Power Plants (NIPPs) is now $5billion, the Managing Director, Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC),James Olotu has said.

Olotu, who spoke yesterday through the Associate Head of Generation, Onuoha Igwe in Abuja during at the opening session of the company’s meeting with electricity generation companies, said by the time the conception is fully on ground, “NDPHC or NIPPs would have consumed “over $5billion on the aggregate.”

He said in 2007, the committee for building medium- sized power plants in the Niger Delta, was originally funded with $2.5million following the approval of the National Assembly to use the excess crude oil account to fund the projects.

Olotu said upon the committee’s study, the Federal Government decided that seven power plants should be built as medium-sized power plants in the Niger Delta utilising available gas close to the plants, adding that the decision was to transmit the power from the Niger Delta to the central part of the country.

Olotu explained that it was expected that the grid would be built into the power plants, for the power to reach the beneficiaries, pointing out that the NDPHC owns the distribution component.

He said as the company is contributing to the development and enlargement of the grid, as a whole, it is equally building infrastructure on transmission network to close up the loop.

Olotu said the transmission system currently in place that is owned by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) at the 330KV level, ends in Jos and Enugu , stressing that “the plant in Jos and Enugu is not covered by the 330KV. “

He however said by July, the double circuit which is built in Uguaja to loop the gap between Enugu and Jos would have been completed.

“By the grace of God, between now and July this year, we should have that Eastern plan completed,” he said.

Olotu, who blamed the recurring power shortage on vandalism of gas pipeline, said: “At any point in this chain, what we have been seeing in the past year or two, is persistent damage on the gas pipelines.

“The moment those gas pipelines are disrupted, there is nothing to turn the gas to the power plants, and when the gas turbines are not working you cannot have the power,“ he said.