FG may not achieve 6,000mw in December - NERC

Gbola Subair, Abuja - 03.06.2009

The National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has said the 6,000 megawatts of electricity proposed by the Federal Government by December may not be realisable.

The reason, according to NERC, was the continous dependence of the country on natural gas as its main source of fuel for power projects.

The administrator of NERC, Imamudeen Talba, while speaking at a pre-summit conference on International Summit and Exhibition on Energy, at the Yar’ Adua Centre, Abuja, said the commission had introduced a licensing regime which had seen 28 independent power producers, in addition to the 18 Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) successor companies, emerging.

He said out of the 26 generation licenses so far issued by NERC, 24 were for thermal power projects while one each was for coal and hydro respectively, adding that the fuel source for power projects in the country was inclined towards natural gas.