Egbin Power begs Senate to intervene in N388bn NBET debt
By Uthman Salami
The Managing Director, Egbin Power Plc, Mr. Kola Adesina, has urged the Nigerian Senate to weigh in on the debt amount to about N388 Billion Naira debt incrued by the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET).
He further disclosed that the management of Egbin Power Plc would invest $2 billion in the expansion of its plants, adding to the $1billion the company had already invested after the privatisation of the plant in 2013.
Mr Adesina disclosed this when the Senate Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation paid an oversight visit to the plant in Lagos.
According to him, “There are challenges we face that we want this Committee to help us with. The NBET still owes Egbin a debt of N388bn including money for actual energy wheeled out, and interest for late payment.”
He further said gas constraints have cost the firm 106.34MW since June 2020 adding that in 2021, the plant lost N13.68bn to these external constraints.
Adesina further disclosed that the power plant “has invested $1billion in its value chain,” thereby “perfecting an investment plan of $2billion for expansion.”
He gave the breakdown of the proposed investment to include $1.8billion for Egbin Power 2 and overhaul of the existing plant as well as $200million for its estate.
He said the plant has the capacity to deliver 1320 Megawatts (MW) but was generating 400MW as at the time the firm took over, but it has been overhauled with capacity surging to over 800MW.
He said, “At some points, we generated 1,100MW. We have been doing an average of 1,000MW this year. We are having a future investment including the Egbin 2 expansion, overhauling of Egbin 1 and staff quarters that will cost $2bn.”
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the committee, Senator Theodore Orji, appreciated the investment efforts of the plant, saying that it had done so well in justifying the intimate reason for privatisation of the power sector by the Federal Government.
He said, “I can say that you are trying your best. You are doing fine and you should be encouraged to do more in terms of investments.”
The Chairman of the committee, however, queried the transmission and gas constraints, which have downed the power available below actual generation capacity.
