‘FG, DisCos to raise capacity by 2,000mw, meter consumers’

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, said the Federal Government is working to overcome the challenges of increasing the capacity of the 11 electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) to take additional 2,000 megawatts (mw).

Fashola, who spoke at the 20th monthly power sector operators meeting in Owerri, Imo State, yesterday, said, “I now move to the challenges which we still have to overcome; the more pressing of which is how the DisCos can quickly increase their capacity to take power and distribute to the consumers.”

Fashola said the Federal Government initiative was addressing expansion of the DisCos network so that they could take additional 2,000mw of available power, providing meters and giving more power to consumers.

He said the DisCos wrote a letter to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) dated September 27, 2017 on the initiatives and raised concerns on guaranteeing their investments.

Responding to the letter, he commended the DisCos for not opposing the initiatives, saying, “As for channelling investment into distribution assets through the DisCos, government has not yet taken a position on what the best way forward will be.

“However, government is clear that a solution must be found quickly to the inability of DisCos to take about 2000mw of power that will imminently increase as we get more incremental power,” he said.

He also said, in September, that operators of Afam IV Generation Company (GenCo) recovered 100mw that had been damaged and inoperative since January 2015.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) also energised the second Jebba-Kainji 330 kilovolt (kv) line and the second AjaokutaAbuja 330kv line to boost electricity transmission after they became inoperative since 2015.