A status report on the major power generating stations in the country, from the perspective of the managers, suggests that three major problems stand in their path to meeting the 6000MW target: inadequate equipment; gas supply challenges; and government's lackadaisical attitude.
Below are the views of the managers and the response of the minister to their claims.
Inadequate equipment and gas supply
Kainji Dam, which has a generating target of 450MW, has been bogged down by maintenance challenges. Although, all its units have been repaired and maintained; officials still fear that "all the units are susceptible to breakdown." The management of the station says it is "currently running each unit of the station at 55MW instead of 60MW so as not to lose the machines." For this reason, Kainji cannot meet its target.
The Sapele power station, which has a target of 270MW that it cannot meet, shares the same fate with Kainji. This is due to "gas supply limitation" and "problem of turbine blades," according to Chidi Ifionu, the Chief Executive Officer of the Sapele power station.
The Geregu power plant which has an installed capacity of 523.5MW was allocated a target of 300MW to help realise the Yar'Adua 6000MW dream by December. However, it is only able to generate 150MW at the current review.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) Akinwunmi Bada, one of the three outgrowths of the PHCN, blamed the shortfall to the attitude of the contractors. He said Geregu is "awaiting Siemens' response to address the twin issues of frequency response mode of the Geregu plant..." and "wondered whether the job could move forward because Siemens did not have the technical people on ground to do the job."
At the Olorunshogo/Papalanto power station, officials say gas supply is the main challenge. "All units were ready if gas was available," they insist, just like the situation at the Omotosho power station, where the operators claim that "since commissioning of the units in 2007, no gas to run the units, hence one unit was turned at a time." Its Chief Executive Officer, Samuel Itshekiri, stated that when two (units) were tested to run together, after a long while, it results in vibration," which he said poses danger because "if units were run on high vibration, the bearing might fail."
Mr. Babalola, the Power Minister responded by saying that "there was high expectation from the government in spite of the problem of gas, since lots of money had been spent on maintenance of the units."
Government's lackadaisical attitude
The lackadaisical attitude of the federal government and its agencies in making electricity available to Nigerians has also been cited as a major hindrance. In 2003, a 60MVA generator transformer was taken from the Afam gas station to South Africa for repairs and it has been there since then. At the Lagos region, a 132KV bus coupler has had serious leakage since 1994, and has not been repaired; while another 33KV bus coupler has been cannibalised since 1995.
It is not only in transmission that this attitude is displayed. At the Afam power station which is expected to generate 386MW of electricity, only 50MW is being generated. Its Chief Executive Officer, Mike Nwogu, "blamed the miss on target in delay in release of funds, procurement problems, stating that Siemens, one of the major contractors had said that they could not deliver DT19 because of the timing."
Mr. Babalola, however, castigated Mr. Nwogu by saying "that the CEO (Afam) had everything under his control and, therefore, had no excuse at this time. Furthermore, he said that when he visited Afam, he was given the assurance that the job would be completed contrary to the report given."
The present status
Thus, unlike what official spokespersons have said, less than only 2,952MW was being generated as at December 14, 2009, during the peak generation period.
In a self-critical review of its lack lustre performance, the power ministry, in its budget presentation to the Senate committee, listed the following factors: "... failure to undertake critical pre-contract award studies; inadequate funding to start up projects; failure to acquire project sites, right-of-way and resolve compensation and community issues; ineffective project management and lack of contract management/supervision."