NDPHC Says DisCos To Refund $1.2bn for 374 Projects

By Lateef Taiwo

The Niger Delta Power Holding Company, NDPHC, Limited said it had executed over 374 projects worth over $1.2 billion in the distribution subsector of the Nigerian electricity supply industry to boost power supply nationwide.

It added that the money expended on
the projects which according to him had been handed over to various power distribution companies would be refunded by the DisCos.

It disclosed this in its July 2023 report titled, ‘Maximising national integrated projects’, which was presented to stakeholders at the Nigeria Energy Forum by the Executive Director, Networks, NDPHC, Ifeoluwa Oyedele.

The NDPHC is incorporated under the Companies and Allied Matters Act as a private limited liability company with shareholding fully subscribed to by the federal, state and Local Governments, with a mandate to manage the power projects tagged ‘National Integrated Power Projects.

In his presentation, Oyedele stated that while the projects had been handed over to the Discos, legal assets transfer was ongoing and awaiting a valuation exercise by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.

He outlined the executed projects to include 337 33/11kV lines, 25,281 25kVA and 50kVA CSP transformers, 199 distribution transformers (100, 200, 300, 500 KVA) of 108MVA, 2,256km of 33kV lines and 4,670km of 11kV lines.

In the power transmission subsector, Oyedele said the company had also undertaken over 121 transmission line and substation projects.

According to him, expansion works were carried out in 34 substations of the Transmission Company of Nigeria across the country, including those located in Enugu, Jos, and Owerri.

Other projects executed in the transmission sub-sector include a total of 51 330/132kV substations with 6,450MVA transmission capacity, 132/33kV substations with 3,160MVA transmission capacity, 2,703km 330kV of lines, 765km of 132kV lines, while 25 other projects were said to be currently ongoing.

“These accomplishments led to a complete transformation of the hitherto radial Nigerian grid into what it is today, a substantially looped grid that provides substantial redundancy to power flow around the grid. This was completely unavailable prior to NIPP,” Oyedele stated.

The report pointed out some power generation and operations challenges, as it noted that for transmission constraints, the NDPHC had an installed capacity of about 4,000 megawatts which was mostly available, except for maintenance outages.

“But this is dispatched at about 700MW on average by the System Operator for reasons ascribed to load rejection by the DisCos,” the power firm stated.