FG gives one month deadline to power project contractors

By Unknown

Saturday, 5 April 2014

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The federal government has given distribution contractors 60 days to complete their contracts on power projects as the contract would be terminated if not completed within the stipulated period.

At a meeting with the transmission and distribution companies yesterday at the Presidential Villa, Vice President Namadi Sambo mandated the Managing Director, Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), James Olotu, to communicate to the contractors the need to fast tract work to avoid the consequences.

Sambo also said government was ready to assist the new owners to acquire transformers to enable them to distribute power should they have need of them. According to him, the companies would buy the transformers from the Ministry of Power, while payment would be spread over a period of fifteen years. Sambo asked the stakeholders at the meeting to also submit their plans on delivering energy metering within one week.

He disclosed that the meeting was “conveyed to review the situation of power supply situation in the country and essentially to work out strategies through which government investment through the NDPHC in terms of various assets at the distribution level could be completed and transferred to the discos at a price to be determined later.” In order to solve most of the challenges faced by the new owners, Sambo directed the Transmission, Distribution and Niger Delta Power Companies to meet and solve the problems facing their operations, especially that of load shedding in parts of the country.

He decried the situation where someone blew up a gas pipeline and the general act of sabotage by others causing the problems experienced in Lagos and other parts of the country. He added that government places high premium in the power sector and had invested heavily in the gas project to supply to power stations.

The vice president urged the transmission and distribution companies to be transparent in their operations and work together to achieve the desired result for Nigerians.

Earlier, Olotu briefed the meeting on the progress National Integrated Power Project and highlighted some challenges which included unavailability of 33 KV bays at the 132/33kV substations, inadequate transmission capacity at the TCN substation of Abuja, Ikeja and Port Harcourt Distribution company ; Security challenges in the North East; the issue of connection of weak existing 33 KV source to new completed injection substations at Kaduna and Ibadan.