2 NIPP projects to commence operations2015

Two National Integrated Power Projects
(NIPP) are to commence operations in
the first quarter of next year.
The cherry news was unfolded by the
Managing Director of Transmission Com­
pany of Nigeria (TCN), Mack Kast, who
said the NIPP projects are located in
Calabar and Alaoji.
Kast equally informed that a number of
important TCN projects are ongoing and
at various stages of completion.
He explained that the significant reduction
in system collapse in 2014 was as a
result of judicious use of available
resources tailored towards enhanced
evacuation capacity.
The TCN boss gave kudos to the
contractors and officials working on the
projects for ensuring that they are
realised on schedule, adding that fund
utilisation has recorded a huge success to
as much as 99.5 per cent in the year
under review.
Also at the forum, the Chairman, Senate
Committee on Power, Senator Philip Adu­
da, counselled the new owners of Gencos
and Discos to be guided by the maxim
that to whom much is given, much is
expected, hence Nigerians expect more
from them as they are fully in charge of
the sector post-privatisation.
He was, however, added that government
cannot fold its hands because despite pri­
vatisation, it still has equity shares in
those enterprises, stressing that a
responsible government must do all it can
to deliver the dividends of democracy.
Aduda said investors in the power sector
must be encouraged to keep faith with the
nation’s vision of uninterrupted power
supply.
On load shedding in the sector, he said it
is totally unacceptable that distribution
companies have not kept faith with the
promised capital injection to enhance and
build on what was inherited, tasking them
to brace up by building capacity to take
up all allocated power.
This, he said, this was the only way to
justify the confidence reposed in them by
government, to take the sector to greater
heights.
Mr. Simeon Atakuliku, the Representative
of Presidential Task Force on Power
(PTFP), in his presentation at the forum
spoke about the inability of the national
grid to provide enough power for both
industrial and domestic uses, urging all
agencies that have the mandate to deliver
on power to monitor contractors, so that
the projects are realised “`on time.
He also spoke on the need for a more
robust move towards solar powered
energy source through legislation and
incentives, arguing that the vast potentials
of the country in the area of solar energy
is grossly underutilised.