The Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) Limited has embarked on implementing a programme tagged “Light Up Nigeria”, an initiative aimed at leveraging its generation assets to deliver reliable power supply to eligible customers, Discos, and Third Party Project Developers that aggregate load and provide reliable supply to bulk customers.
Mr. Chiedu Ugbo, Managing Director, NDPHC, gave this submission in his opening remarks at a Sustained Media Campaign held in Lagos on Monday, November 13, 2023.
Ugbo said: “The ‘Light Up Nigeria’ Initiative is directly led by NDPHC’s Chairman and Senator Kashim Shettima, the Vice President of the Federal Government of Nigeria, and the approach is to focus more on sale to bulk purchasers and developers that aggregate load because of the volume of power that can be sold on each such project.
“Despite NDPHC’s capacity of generating 2500MW to the national grid, regrettably we generate only 975MW which means that we have 1525MW idle capacity that nobody is using.
“At the core of NDPHC’s initiatives is to prioritise high-value power sale opportunities with bulk purchasers and Discos, which under the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) have significant power supply demands across their franchise areas.
“The rationale for this approach is that projects delivered in collaboration with these potential bulk purchasers are likely to generate significantly greater volumes of power sales under bankable arrangements. This arrangement also aids industry evolution towards bilateral contracting.
“In resolving the challenges NDPHC has already signed bilateral Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) for a total of about 250MW of power sale transactions signed since the inception of the programme.
“These are Eko Electricity Distribution Plc, Compagnie d’Energie Electrique du Togo, Sunflag Steel Industries Limited, Lagos and Wewood Limited, Omotosho, Ondo State.
“Others are Ayingba Independent Electricity Distribution Network (AIEDN) Limited, Ondo State; Agbara Industrial Area, Alaoji, Ota & Shagamu Interchange, Olorunshogo, among others.
“In resolving the challenges, NDPHC has had extensive equipment with all Discos operating in Nigeria, the goal is to will the current capacity available, and develop more.”
In his submission, Mr. Ife Oyedele, the Executive Director (Networks), opined: “The initiative offers a sure path to being able to sell a significant part of NDPHC’s commercial stranded capacity for light up businesses and home.
“First and foremost, ‘Light Up Nigeria’ Initiative, will afford NDPHC an opportunity to utilise its idle capacity and that makes it possible for us to earn more money and which affects all of us because NDPHC is owed by all Nigerians.
“Secondly which is more important, the industrial sector becomes more productive because they have more power to run their businesses, downside for them is eliminated and the cost of production is gradually reduced, this would eventually be passed on to the consumers.
“It is important to note that the grid can now focus on producing more electricity to those who are on the grid and those who are previously not on the grid, so you have energy that can now be provided for small-scale who are not captured under the eligible customer programme. I mean those big boys in the Agbara Industrial Estate because those boys are now out of the national grid because we are supplying direct to them. The national grid can then focus on residential areas, which most especially affects the common man and the small-scale industries,” he concluded.
Valerie Agberaga, General Manager, Renewable Energy, highlighted steps taken in area of partnership to ensure more sustainable are generated.
She said: “We had the small hydro to work on and one of the issues we had is that there are lots of concessions going on in some of these hydros but most of these concessionaires have not come back because of all the other frameworks and policies for them to be able to execute it so we are working with them to see some of these small hydros we can work on.
“We also received requests from some states to look at what they already had and see how we can work with them to build some of these small hydros. Biomass is one of our long-term plans so we are thinking of building plants that will be able to commensurate with what we want to do.
“Talking about going back to those communities that we already deployed solar home systems and I can confirm to you that there is great social impact. The first we did was just 10Watt and we have given them solar systems with bigger capacity.”
NDPHC’s Light Up Nigeria initiative is to explore not only the opportunities under the eligible Customer Regulations and Electricity Act 2023, but also bilateral power sales in collaboration with Discos and other bulk purchasers under trading arrangements that will ensure that investments are mobilised for end-to-end solutions that will guarantee that electricity is delivered to customers and NDPHC is paid for the electricity generated.
By Ajibola Adedoye
