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The federal government yesterday said it would deliver an additional 750 mega watts of electricity to the national grid from the multi-million dollar Olorunsogo Phase 11 National Integrated Power (NIPP) by November this year.

The construction cost of the Olorunsogo NIPP is pegged at about $600 million by the federal government.

Other onging NIPPs are Omotosho, Ondo State; Ihovbo, Edo state; Alaoje, Abia state; Egbema, Imo state; Gbaran, Bayelsa state; Calabar, Cross River state; Omoku, Rivers state; Geregu, Kogi state and Sapele, Delta state.

Fielding questions from journalists after a working tour of the project, in Olorunsogo, Ogun state, Vice President Nnamadi Sambo said the government was committed to delivering stable electricity supply to Nigerians before the end of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

“In another six months from now, the entire project would be completed and have 750MW added to the national grid,” he told journalists.

Improving the economy

Mr Sambo said, “We have just signed a contract with Nigerians and that is why we have to ensure that we deliver power to Nigerians”, adding that the government of Mr. Jonathan was in a hurry to improve the social and economic lives of the citizenry. He said “We have no time to waste to improve our social staus and change the fortunes of Nigerians,” reassuring the electorate of government’s commitment to delivering on their election promises.

“I want to say to Nigerians that we are not resting. And that we have done our studies and we shall deliver on our promises and not fail Nigerians,” he added. The VP expressed satisfaction over the progress of the work so far and said he was pleased to note that three of the four gas turbines had already been test run.

While thanking the Ogun State governor, Gbenga Daniel, who accompanied him on a tour of the project, the VP assured him of the federal government’s commitment to ensuring that the state benefits maximally from the power project.

In his welcome remarks, Mr Daniel said the people of the state “are happy for this project because the people have been told that they will get priority attention”.

The governor maintained that power remained central to the economic growth of a nation and urged the federal government to do more to put smiles on the faces of the electorate. He further expressed hope that the NIPP project would be completed in order to make electricity available to “our people”.

Stable power supply

Nuhu Wya, minister of state power told our correspondent, during the inspection of the project, that the contract for the execution of the project was signed in 2007 by the federal government to boost power generation in the country.

While also reassuring the Ogun State government of government’s commitment to ensuring that the people of the state are the primary beneficiary of the power project was doing everything possible to deliver stable power supply to Nigerians. The Olorunsogo NIPP is a combined circle facility with four gas and two steam turbines designed for maximum power generation efficiency. He further explained that “combined circle means that the exhaust gas from the gas turbines is recovered at about 650 degrees centigrade and used through the heat recovery steam generator to fire a steam turbine to generate additional power”.

The effect, he said, “is that the exhaust heat that would otherwise be lost is recovered and used to generate additional electricity without bearing more gas”.

According to him, the process increases the efficiency from about 35 percent to 50 percent. Mr Wya added that three of the four gas turbines were already running, stating that the 750MW will “contribute additional 20 percent of the total power available to Nigeria. This is a significant contribution to the available 4000MW”.