Jonathan to Commission New NIPPs, Power Hits 5,500mw

President Goodluck Jonathan is set to commission new power facilities across the country under the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP).
This was disclosed by the Minister of Power, Prof Chinedu Nebo and the Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam who briefed State House Correspondents at the end of the last meeting of the Board of Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) Ltd. for the Jonathan-led administration which was chaired by Vice-President Namadi Sambo.
According to the minister, the outgoing administration has achieved an installed minimum electricity generation capacity of 5,500 megawatts despite the continuous vandalism of oil and gas pipelines by vandals.
According to him, government is losing N120 million monthly and approximately N1.5 billion yearly on the repairs of vandalised pipelines, adding that a pattern of deliberate vandalism of the
pipelines, which occurred every two weeks, have made the nation lose about 1,600 megawatts of electricity at a particular time.
He advised the incoming government of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to intensify security surveillance of the petroleum pipelines in the country as well as consider the option of digitalised surveillance system.
“Four power plants have been completed and will be commissioned in the next couple of weeks, Sapele is one of them, Ihobor is another one. And hopefully and by the grace of God, we
intend to do the commissioning very soon so that Nigerians will enjoy even more the benefits of what the current administration has done in the power sector.”
“There are literally hundreds of other projects that need to be commissioned. So very soon we are going into commissioning exercise.” He added
In his contribution, Suswam said: “The board resolved to commission some of the numerous projects under the NIPP programme. Those projects are to be commissioned in the subsequent weeks.”
Apart from the new power plants, he explained that the government has completed more transmission lines but would not be able to complete some sales transactions because of some complications in the bid process and inadequate gas supply.
Managing Director of the NDPHC, James  Olotu, said the Company’s 2013/2014 Statement of Accounts is now ready for anyone audit to ascertain the financial activities and current status of NDPHC.