Nigerians continue to face persistent power outages as the Niger Delta Power Holding Company struggles to harness its installed capacity of over 4,000 megawatts, generating just 1,000 MW, according to a recent report by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.
The NERC report highlights significant underperformance across NDPHC-managed power plants, with only the Ihovbor 2 plant operating near full capacity at 97%, producing 449 MW of its 461 MW potential as of April. Other facilities, however, are operating well below 50% capacity, exacerbating the country’s chronic electricity shortages.
Notably, the 500 MW Alaoji 1 plant has been offline for months, generating zero watts, while the 750 MW Olorunsogo 2 plant managed just 24 MW (3%) in April and none in March. Similarly, Sapele 1 produced 23 MW of its 720 MW capacity, and Omotosho 2 contributed a mere 21 MW despite a 500 MW capacity.
Ihovbor 1, also rated at 500 MW, generated only 83 MW, or 17% of its potential. Omoku, with a 150 MW capacity, operated at 11%, producing just 16 MW last month.
Despite government efforts to boost power generation, including the National Integrated Power Project launched under former President Olusegun Obasanjo to address capacity constraints, the sector continues to falter. In April, Nigeria’s total power generation reached 5,257 MW, representing just 39% of the country’s 13,625 MW installed capacity.
“The NIPP means that you must have all the ingredients that make up power into one single entity (value chain). And that is whether it is fuel, gas, water, or biomass, the power turbines themselves, the transmission, infrastructure, the distribution infrastructure, all together into one ambit, hence the word integrated. Now national, because the power business is highly capital intensive, hence the project is being funded by the three tiers of government for the benefit of all Nigerians.
“When you have a system where the governance infrastructure is tailored to have such perception in terms of integration. You have smooth delivery of your services across every sector of the economy,” it was explained.
However, since the launch of the NDPHC and the NIPP, the result has been far below expectations.
The former NDPHC Managing Director, Chiedu Ugbo, said last year that the Nigerian government had invested a lot in the NDPHC, but its 4,000MW generation capacity was underutilised.
“The Nigerian federation has invested in us so much to the extent that we have 4,000MW generation capacity built with people’s funds, but it is grossly underutilised due to a number of factors outside NDPHC’s control,” Ugbo noted.
After years of underperformance, the Federal Government privatized several NIPP plants.
In 2024, plans were announced to sell five additional power plants under the National Integrated Power Projects, valued at approximately $1.15 billion.
These include the 434MW Geregu II gas-fired plant in Kogi State, the 451MW Omotosho II plant in Ondo State, the 750MW Olorunshogo II plant in Ogun State, the 563MW Odukpami plant in Cross River State, and the 451MW Benin-Ihovbor plant in Edo State.
Power Minister Adebayo Adelabu previously praised former President Obasanjo for his investment in these plants, despite their underperformance due to gas supply issues.
“I can tell you that the 10 Nigerian Integrated Power Projects under President Olusegun Obasanjo are there for us to see. And I’m aware they spent over $8bn out of the so-called $16bn that people bandied around. We can see those plants today.
“We have two in Olorunsogo, that is Papalanto in Ogun State. We have two in Omotosho, close to Ore in Ondo State. We have one in Benin. We have Egbema that has not been completed. We have in Calabar. We have about 10 of them. I know seven of them were completed, and they are under the management of the Nigeria Delta Power Holding Company today. They have a capacity totalling about 5,000MW.
“It was good we made those investments then, but the issue is, have we really optimised the benefit of those investments. I would say no!” he said.
