… as minister pledges intervention
Monsuru Afinni, managing director, Pacific Energy Company Limited, a power generation company (Genco) that manages and controls Olorunsogo Power Station located in Ogun State, has cried out to the Federal Government to fix some challenges that hamper power generation and distribution across the country.
Afinni, who received the duo of Babatunde Fashola, minister of power, works and housing, and Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State at the Olorunsogo Power Station at the weekend, said delayed revenue remittance of N26.4 billion to Olorunsogo was seriously undermining power generation from the plant.
While explaining that though the power generation plant has installed capacity of 335 megawatts, the managing director said power generation from the plant hovered between 151mw and 186mw in recent times due to debt of N26.4 billion owed by Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading plc (NBET) and some power distribution companies (Discos) and other constraints.
Splitting the debt into between NBET that owes N23.9 billion and concerned Discos, which owe N2.5 billion, Afinni told the minister that inadequate gas supply, grid instability and deplorable state of road linking the plant had worsened the problems of the power station.
He added that scarce foreign exchange to procure equipment and spare parts as well as to pay expatriates and maintenance teams and other challenges facing the plant had greatly reduced installed power generation capacity of 335mw to 151mw and 186mw in the past weeks, and could further deteriorate situation.
“The 3551 Breaker has been bad for a long time and it’s seriously affecting our plant operations. TCN’s isolators are faulty due to lack of spare parts. Several written reports have been made to TCN (Transmission Company of Nigeria) to no avail.
“The host community and its environs are agitating for supply of electricity to them. The Sagamu-Papalanto Road, which leads to the plant, has been in a deplorable state for over 18 months. Access to the plant in the next few weeks when rainy season approaches will be impossible,” he said.
Responding, Fashola expressed the determination of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to support power companies in resolving their generation problems as he noted that the problems facing Olorunsogo power plant is different and requires multi-sectoral approaches to fix them.
Consequently, he requested comprehensive report of challenges facing the power generation compnay for onward presentation to the Federal Executive Council for consideration and come out with appropriate action soon.
Fashola said, “What you asked for, we are going to prescribe them in a remedial way. I will send letters from my office to
call on you, hopefully, we would also be able to prepare a standard template to then allow you to respond because what we want to do now is to go to the root of the problem and fix it.
“We know the issues of foreign exchange; they are being addressed on another template. It’s the technical issue that I’m interested in. The financing issue will be dealt with by another department.
“As the supervising ministry, there are some things that are not in our control. If there is water problem in any of the hydro dams, it is the problem of the Ministry of Water Resources. The problem of gas supply is that of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.”
