Posted on: 01:12 Fri, 17 Jun 2016



The Federal Government has
promised to speed up work on four
hydropower plants in order to
boost power supply in the country.

The Minister of Power, Works and
Housing, Babatunde Fashola (SAN),
who made the pledge Thursday,
listed the hydropower plants where
government would speed up work
as Gurara hydropower plant phase
one and phase two, Zungeru, Dadin
Kowa and Mambilla power plants.

According to Fashola, continuous
vandalism of gas pipelines and
infrastructures across the country
had forced government to divert
attention to other alternative
sources of energy to meet the
country’s power needs.

The destruction of pipelines in the
Niger Delta conveying gas to some
of the gas-powered plants in the
country has seen power generation
drop to its lowest in recent times.

However, speaking at the launch of
Building Energy Efficiency
Guideline (BEEG) for Nigeria, the
minister assured that embarking on
alternative sources of energy by
government would make it
impossible for anybody to hold
Nigeria to ransom in future by
controlling any particular source of
fuel for electricity.

The minister said: “We have seen
from events that started from
around the 14th of February this
year, repeated acts of vandalism on
our gas pipelines and
infrastructure that renders us
clearly vulnerable to one source of
fuel for our energy development.

“That has challenged us to develop
options, alternatives – solar in
particular and of course
hydropower plants in more
quantitative response. So we will be
accelerating work on project like
Gurara hydropower plant phase
one and phase two. Work has
started on Zungeru hydropower
plant. We will also be accelerating
work on Dadin Kowa power plant,
as we will on Mambilla power plant
which will give us the biggest single
electrification source over a period
of seven years that it is estimated to
take to conclude it.

“To us, this is a journey of
diversification, a journey of
electricity security for Nigeria, it is
a journey that has already started
and it is a journey that will ensure
that in future, it will be impossible
to hold this country to ransom by
controlling any particular source of
fuel for electricity”.