The Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) has indicated its readiness to boost the Lagos electricity market with an additional 1,500 megawatts of power supply.
The company’s Managing Director/CEO, Jennifer Adighije, made the pledge last Friday when she paid a courtesy visit to the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Lagos State Electricity Regulatory Commission (LASERC), Temitope George, on Friday.
A statement issued on the NDPHC’s boss visit to LASERC quoted her as saying that the NDPHC currently has about 2,000MW of stranded generation capacity, which if released to LASERC would improve the electricity supply in the nation’s commercial capital.
According to her, currently Lagos is receiving about 1,000MW from the national grid even when the city’s electricity demand is estimated at about 12,000MW, signifying a huge demand-supply gap.
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Adighije promised that in line with the NDPHC’s mandate, the company was ready to help partly close the supply-demand gap through improved power generation and investments in transmission and distribution infrastructure.
She clarified: “Our mandate is fundamentally to scale up power generation alongside the associated transmission and distribution networks. We are uniquely positioned in the power sector because our operations cut across the entire electricity value chain, from gas to generation, transmission, and distribution.
“It is widely known that NDPHC owns the largest power generation assets in sub-Saharan Africa. We have an installed generation capacity of about 4,000MW, but regrettably, we are only able to dispatch between 400MW and 500MW daily. This clearly shows that we have significant stranded capacity,” she added.”
Noting that NDPHC has over the past years been playing a major role in the nation’s power sector reforms and infrastructure development was strongly positioned to partner with LASERC to deepen electricity access across Lagos State.
The NDPHC’s boss noted that recent research findings published by Lagos Electricity Market Report reflected a wide energy demand gap in the state, which the company was eager to help reduce.
She said: “This is the role we want to play. That is why we are engaging with LASERC to support the scaling and acceleration of distributed access to electricity in Lagos State.
“The Lagos electricity market is very lucrative and dynamic. This is a market where we are willing to make huge investments. In the past, our investments were largely intervention-based, but now we are looking at a market where there is a clear path to investment recovery.
“We are keen to invest in transmission and distribution assets to ensure the delivery of reliable, affordable, and quality electricity to consumers”, Adighije assured.
In her remarks, the LASERC’s CEO reaffirmed Lagos State Government’s commitment to improving electricity supply across the state and the commission’s readiness to collaborate with the NDPHC, commending the management for its sustained investments in the nation’s power sector.
