By Yakubu Lawal, Asst. Energy Editor

Managing Director of the Authority, Mr. Joseph Makoju, in an interview with The Guardian in Abuja appealed to Nigerians to exercise patience and bear with the authority in this trying moment.

"Certainly, the major positive development we are now waiting for is the Agip power plant at Opkai, that should give us 330megawatts MW. If you add that to what is going to come from Afam, I am in a position to confidently predict, barring any accident, by mid-April, that the power situation should begin to stabilise," he stated.

Makoju added: "My appeal to Nigerians is to bear with us. Over the next five weeks, there will be load-shedding certainly into April. I will hopefully say people will start to notice some stability bounce back into our system then".

According to him, with the rehabilitation works going on and the Agip power plant coming on stream, the authority would be able to operate at its peak generation level of over 3000MW and that, he said, will bring the required stability.

"That was where we were in August, September and October last year and people were happy with the level of our performance. We will get there in April and there will be further improvement on that till the end of the year" Makoju stated.

The Managing Director pointed out that the ultimate objective of the authority is to achieve 10,000MW by the year 2007, stressing that already machineries had been put in place to achieve this.

He said five new power stations were in the process of being constructed to add about 2000 MW to the grid system.

"This is not just a proposal, contracts have been awarded, down-payment made and in some cases, work has reached 30 per cent or 50 per cent level," he said.

These power stations, he said, are being built at Papa Lanto in Ogun State, Omotosho in Ondo State, Ugheli in Delta State, Alaoje near Aba, Abia State and Geregu in Kogi State.

Said he: "So when you combine all that, that is what will move us to 10,000MW target, which I have mentioned."
He added that contributions would also come from oil companies who are now planning one power station or the other, and the Independent Power Projects IPP.

The NEPA boss attributed the cause of the current epileptic power situation to several factors, including low water level at the hydro-power stations and breakdown in some of the thermal plants.

"I know people don't like hearing it but one of the problems is the issue of low level of water".

He said that the result of this low water level is the fact that some 200mw or 300mw which should have come from hydro are lost.

" The second reason is breakdown at thermal stations in Afam, Delta, and Egbin.

Luckily we have been able to put Egbin right .It is running full blast now" he stated. Egbin has 1320MW capacity.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Gas Company limited (NGC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), had stated that it has supplied between 300 to 340 million standard cubic feet of gas mmscf to NEPA against about 200mmscf contained in the purchase and sale agreement signed by the two organisations.

NGC Managing Director, Mr. Ladi Fadayomi, stated that apart from problems arising from the gas producing companies which is often responsible for the company not being able to meet the required volume of gas to the end users, NGC has given priority to the need of NEPA due to its strategic role in the economy.

" I can tell you that we are even giving more gas to NEPA than the volume we signed with them" Fadayomi stated.

He added: "We are giving them between 300 and 340 now which is even higher than the 200 we signed in our agreement with them."
NEPA had, in a statement issued on January 6,2005 blamed its poor performances in electricity supply to reduction in gas supply to its facilities by NGC.`