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dispute, that it is the fastest growing
city in the country is also not in
dispute. We have continued to witness
unprecedented influx of many companies
in the oil and gas sector, Banking and
Finance and other businesses into the
State capital. These in turn have given
rise to the rapid growth in the demand
for electricity and other related
utilities, but, whereas the demand for
electricity power has continued to
witness steady growth, there has not
been any corresponding increase in
available power from the National grid.
Instead,
supply has been on the decline. It is
common knowledge that without adequate
supply of electricity, no country can
attain industrial and economic
regeneration. The case of Nigeria is a
very pathetic one, given the abundant
resources available to this country. Our
underdevelopment and high cost of
production is the result of several
years of neglect of the power sector,
and the dependence on isolated house
generators for production.
The main
trust of the Rivers State Integrated
Independent Power Project comprising of
power generation (3 Power Plants at
Omoku, Trans Amadi and Eleme), 132KV
double circuit transmission line (210km
on land and 90km 33KV Sub-marine power
cable) and distribution infrastructure
(5 nos. Injection sub-stations and over
80% of distribution infrastructure in
the State) was to bridge the gap between
the power supply from the National grid
PHCN and power demands in the State and
to strengthen the distribution network
in the State. The survey conducted in
1999, had shown that the power demand
for Rivers State was a little above
280MW. But at that point in time the
only source of supply from PHCN was less
than 30MW. To make matters worse, even
the little available power could not be
effectively distributed because of the
state of the distribution infrastructure
in the State, particularly in Port
Harcourt area. They were at various
stages of decay. |
