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Olorunsogo
Generation Company Limited owns the Oloronsogo II Power Plant which is situated
in Olorunsogo in Ogun state of Nigeria and has a design capacity of 754 MW
(at ISO). The Olorunsogo II Power Plant is a combined cycle gas turbine plant.
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The operational
efficiency of the 10 power plants built under the National Integrated Power
Projects scheme is being threatened by a debt of ₦99bn owed the managers of the
facilities.
The
Punch report continues:
According
to the Niger Delta Power Holding Company, the NIPP managers, the total worth of
electricity supplied to power distribution companies by the power plants, which
has not been paid for is ₦99bn.
The
Managing Director, NDPHC, Mr. James Olotu, stated that although the power
distribution companies had distributed the electricity generated by the NIPPs
to consumers, the NIPP managers were still owed close to ₦100bn.
Olotu,
who spoke at the headquarters of the firm in Abuja while playing host to the
Governor of Enugu State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, stated that the huge debt burden was
impacting negatively on the operations of the NIPPs.
He
urged the ministries, departments and agencies of all levels of government as
well as individual power consumers to cultivate the culture of paying their
electricity bills so as to ensure the survival of the sector.
Olotu
said, “It is imperative that for you to keep the synergy between the input and
the output of power, you need to be paid and this payment must be made as and
when due. This is to ensure that you do not create a debt profile and make
yourself a debtor to the people who provide you with services and products,
especially gas.
“For
the moment, there is no trust in the system; where a man can say if ‘I give
your company gas, I will be paid and the payment will be within a short time’;
then, there will be altercations in the system. Some of these altercations
could be that you will be having inadequate gas supply and you experience
inadequate production, distribution and transmission, which is really the
problem that we have right now.
“As
a company that is being owed ₦99bn, I don’t know how many companies can survive
that kind of credit lag. Many companies that find themselves in this kind of
debt would have collapsed by now. But for God and the management of the
resources at our disposal, we would have gone under. This is a significant
problem for the NDPHC.”
Some
of the NIPPs being managed by the NDPHC are the Calabar Power Station, Geregu
II Power Station, Ihovbov Power Station, Egbema Power Station, Olorunsogo II,
Omoku II and Omotosho II.
On
why he visited the NDPHC, Ugwuanyi stated that his team came to seek the
support of the firm with respect to developing power projects in the state.
The
governor said, “First, I’ll like them to intervene in the Enugu Industrial
Power Project and I hope you are aware that presently, the state is enjoying a
Free Trade Zone status at the Ninth Mile. But how can we realize this without
power? I’ve also not discussed the issue of the university town in Nsukka and
the Enugu water scheme project, which all need power.
“We need this power to create employment through industrialization. I’ve discussed the issue of vandalism, court cases and the issue of provision of a corridor for them to wheel out power. So, essentially, these are the reasons why I came here. I hope you are also aware that recently, we had our first Enugu Investment Summit, which shows that Enugu is open for business and as such, we need power.”
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