NDPHC power generated underutilised – Chiedu

By Femi Akinola,Lagos
The  Chief Executive Officer Niger Delta Power Holding Company ( NDPHC) Joseph Chiedu Ugbo on Monday in Lagos disclosed that the power generating company had been generating  4,500 megawatts of electricity but was restrained to supply 957 megawatts owing to challenges in the energy sector.
Chiedu made the disclosure during a press briefing tagged Lighting Up Nigeria, in Ikeja. According to him, NDPHC have the capability to light up businesses and homes across the country adding that this necessitated the agency working in partnership with Distribution Companies (DisCos) to ensure progress in power supply to people’s home and industrial cluster areas.In his welcome address, the NDPHC boss said,  “we have been working aggressively behind the scene to ensure we light up businesses and homes across the country amid the tough operating environment. We have continue to run efficiently and in the best global practice environment.”
He said the agency mainstay is power generation but now focus on intervention in power transmission and  distribution towards achieving the goal of Light Up Nigeria Initiate embarked on bybthe NDPHC. He explained that the  intervention is meant to encourage the Discos to run transmission effectively to an extent of building a tramsmission Station in a short time.In spite of its readiness to Light Up Nigeria Chiedu disclosed that the agency is not exempted  from the marco- economy challenges in the country noting that it’s eating deep into the agency’s operation and the energy sector as a whole.
“NDPHC challenges are  systemic. We’re  faced with the current foreing exchange challenge, indebted from transmission companies and other lost revenues making it difficult to pay for gas which was an essential ingredient in power generation. As of May 2023, the indebtedness to the agency and lost revenue amounts to N179 billion. Aside from this, there is the challenge of vandalisation of power projects across the country, kidnapping of NDPHC workers including workers of our contractors. In some areas where we have an on- going projects, our company used to be forced to pay ransom  to warlords towards effective protection of our power projects across the country,” Chiedu noted.
He however said ” we have underline the challenges confronting us as a company and we’re focused on moving forward. We remain focused on how to bypass these challenges confronting transmission and distribution  to improve our revenue generation  and fulfilment of NDPHC mandate.
The NDPHC boss was accompanied to the media parley by Engineer Yusuf Yare,General Manager transmission department, Engineer Valerie Agberaga, General Manager, Renewable department,Hadjia Maryam Danna, General Manager, Audit and Compliance department  among others. 
The NDPHC is incorporated under the Companies and Allies Matters Act as a private limited liability  company with shareholding fully subscribed  to by the Federal, Statw and Local Government  with a mandate to manage the power projects tagged ‘National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP).