Siemens deal to fix core power issues - NDPHC boss 8 NIPP plants owed N160bn energy debts

At least N160 billion energy invoice has not been paid for in the electricity market for power generated by eight plants under the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP), the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) has said.

The Managing Director/CEO of NDPHC, Mr Chiedu Ugbo, in an interview on Wednesday, however said he was hopeful that the Siemens Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) approved by President Muhammadu Buhari, would fix the transmission and distribution constraints allowing for generated energy to be supplied to consumers, to boost liquidity in the market.

He said: “As at May 31, 2020 the outstanding debt for the power plants was N190 billion but with the Payment Assurance Facility (PAF) which cleared some of it, the debt has reduced to N160bn.”

“There is hope with the Siemens project as they will clean up the transmission and the distribution networks; they will clean up the losses of DisCos and will help with the metering,” adding that in the next one year, the national grid will be boosted to over 7,000 megawatts (MW).

Ugbo ahead of the 60th Independence anniversary, and 15th year for NDPHC, said the power sector grew from about 5,000MW to about 13,000MW of installed capacity since 1999 with the NIPPs contributing over 4,000MW to this pool.

He said the firm has delivered 20,000 Solar Home Systems (SHS) across 12 states which created over 500 jobs.

Under the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) 5 million SHS project, NDPHC said it is an implementing agency. “In the next six months, we will be deploying 100,000 solar home systems,” noting that NDPHC will deploy a huge chunk of the 5m of the SHS.