The Federal Government has promised to speed up work on four hydropower plants in order to boost power supply in the country.
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola (SAN), who made the pledge Thursday, listed the hydropower plants where government would speed up work as Gurara hydropower plant phase one and phase two, Zungeru, Dadin Kowa and Mambilla power plants.
According to Fashola, continuous vandalism of gas pipelines and infrastructures across the country had forced government to divert attention to other alternative sources of energy to meet the country’s power needs.
The destruction of pipelines in the Niger Delta conveying gas to some of the gas-powered plants in the country has seen power generation drop to its lowest in recent times.
However, speaking at the launch of Building Energy Efficiency Guideline (BEEG) for Nigeria, the minister assured that embarking on alternative sources of energy by government would make it impossible for anybody to hold Nigeria to ransom in future by controlling any particular source of fuel for electricity.
The minister said: “We have seen from events that started from around the 14th of February this year, repeated acts of vandalism on our gas pipelines and infrastructure that renders us clearly vulnerable to one source of fuel for our energy development.
“That has challenged us to develop options, alternatives – solar in particular and of course hydropower plants in more quantitative response. So we will be accelerating work on project like Gurara hydropower plant phase one and phase two. Work has started on Zungeru hydropower plant. We will also be accelerating work on Dadin Kowa power plant, as we will on Mambilla power plant which will give us the biggest single electrification source over a period of seven years that it is estimated to take to conclude it.
“To us, this is a journey of diversification, a journey of electricity security for Nigeria, it is a journey that has already started and it is a journey that will ensure that in future, it will be impossible to hold this country to ransom by controlling any particular source of fuel for electricity”.
