To address the country's epileptic
power supply situation, the Federal
Government has announced plans
to generate additional 4,000
megawatts of electricity from coal.
This, according to the government,
will augment the country's power
generation, which currently is a
little above 4,000MW.
The Minister of Power, Prof.
Chinedu Nebo, disclosed this in
Abuja while inaugurating an eight-
man committee on the
development of a framework for
coal to power.
He said, "The Federal Ministry of
Power and the Federal Ministry of
Mines and Steel are working
together to ensure that not only is
coal mined from our coal deposit,
but that coal is also converted to
power. When that is done, it is
most likely that these coal belts,
when utilised, can give us in excess
of 4,000 additional megawatts of
electricity.
"No nation can survive on only one
or two sources of energy. If there
is sabotage or natural disaster that
prevents one source of fuel, and if
that is the only source, then there
is problem."
The minister said it was imperative
for Nigeria to have a well balanced
energy mix, adding that in line with
global best practice, there was an
urgent need to diversify the energy
sources.
Nebo stated that most developed
countries of the world used coal as
their major source of power
generation, stressing that Nigeria's
power generation mix currently
consisted of 70 per cent production
from the thermal plants and 30 per
cent hydropower, adding that
thermal plants were entirely based
on natural gas as fuel.
According to the minister, the
country has abundant coal spread
across 13 states of the federation.
He said coal had been discovered in commercial quantities in a belt
spanning Enugu, Benue, Kogi,
Nassarawa and Gombe states.
According to the terms of refrence
given to the committee members,
a copy of which was obtained by
our correspondent, the committee
will review the status and
adequacy of available studies and
project documents relating to the
establishment of coal-fired plants.
They are to examine the
impediments and challenges to the
development of coal-fired power
plants in the country and make
recommendations to facilitate
investment in coal to power
generation, among others.
In his remarks, the Chairman of
the committee, Mr. Sanusi Garba,
gave an assurance that members
would ensure that the terms of
reference were met.
Source: punch
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