Lagos to get five power plants by 2014

THE Lagos State Government has unveiled plans to raise the number of Independent Power Plants (IPPs) in the state to five, with a combined capacity of 47.35 Mega Watts (MW) by 2014.
  Already, the state government has built two plants in Akute (12.5MW) and Lagos Island (10MW), while plans are in top gear to commission the newly completed Alausa power plant (10.4MW) by next month.
  The Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Toafeek Ajibade Tijani, recently told The Guardian that Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola was set to commission the Alausa project to ease the power challenges in the state.
  “The Alausa IPP, which is set for commissioning in the month of October by Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola will run on environmental-friendly natural gas from Gaslink Limited.
  “The power plant, when commissioned, will power the state secretariat complex, Alausa, Lagos Television (LTV8), Lagos State Printing Corporation, Lagos State Council for Arts and Culture, Office of the Surveyor-General, proposed Multi-Agency Complex, as well as the staff quarters I, II and III.”
  With only 10,000MW of electricity supplied to Lagos from the national grid at peak, he lamented the insufficient supply profile, explaining that the plight necessitated the IPP scheme initiated by the state government to strategically ease the network.
  He, therefore, urged Lagosians to desist from wastages and conserve energy with October already declared as Energy Conservation Month.
  Tijani noted that about 4,358,000kwh of electricity were wasted in the state yearly, stressing that Lagos required additional 10,000MW to meet the state energy demand.
  He said that the state’s public lighting were powered from various energy sources such as diesel, LPG, IPP and solar.
  “While diesel is the primary fuel source, the target is to gradually reduce dependency on diesel by connecting more public lighting to IPPs and increasing the use of LPG and solar,” he said.
  He added: “Over 13,000 residential, commercial and industrial locations have been audited so far, revealing that just over 10 per cent of the power demanded by Lagosians is being met by the national grid. A total of over 17,000 generators were discovered in the locations audited, implying that every location has at least one generator.
  “This necessary practice of self-generation has led to a total consumption of approximately 162,000 litres of diesel a day, resulting in 178lbs of carbon dioxide being emitted per household per day in Lagos.
  On average, Lagosians are powering themselves at a cost of N44/kWh, almost four times the cost of supply from the grid,” he said.