With adequate gas supply, power could hit 6,000mw – Amadi
Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr. Sam Amadi has said with availability of adequate gas supply, power generation capacity could hit over 6,000megawatts (mw), which will lead to significant improvement of power supply nationwide.
Dr. Amadi disclosed this yesterday when he led a delegation from the commission on a visit to the headquarters of Media Trust Limited, publishers of Trust newspapers, in Abuja.
He said: “Generation capacity is at 3,400 to 3,500mw today which has not improved but if we have gas, we could go up to 6,000mw.”
Amadi maintained that some already completed National Integrated Power Projects (NIPPs) could add over 2,600mw capacity to the national grid which is already at about 4,000mw capacity. He however disclosed that only about 600mw is operational based on the available gas supply. He noted that the power pricing of $2 for gas-to-power and a lack of clear gas contractual agreement is hampering the sustained supply of gas to the power generation companies and that has contributed to the several power outages being experienced.
Commenting on the commission’s move towards addressing this challenge, he said “NERC is doing that now in the interim to ensure that we could have at least 500 million scf of gas-to-power through a clear Gas Supply Agreement (GSA). But there is the need for more gas infrastructures to guarantee the capacity expansion in the power sector.”