The Managing Director of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company, Jennifer Adighije, has disclosed that the Alaoji Power Plant, which has been offline for nearly two years, will resume operations by August 2025, as part of the company’s strategic push to recover dormant generation assets and improve grid supply.
Adighije made this known during a high-level visit to the headquarters of the Nigerian Independent System Operator in Abuja on Thursday, where she led a delegation to seek deeper collaboration with the new management of the transmission system operator.
The visit was part of an effort to strengthen collaboration with the newly restructured grid operator, following the unbundling of the Transmission Company of Nigeria.
Recall that last month, The PUNCH reported that power plants under the supervision of the NDPHC were struggling to generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity despite having an installed capacity of over 4,000MW.
According to a report by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, only the Ihovbor 2 power plant operates at 97 per cent of its capacity, generating 449MW of its 461MW capacity as of April.
From the NERC report, it was observed that other power plants operate far below 50 per cent of their installed capacity, leaving Nigerians in the dark. For instance, the 500MW Alaoji 1 power plant has not generated a single watt for many months.
But providing updates on facilities under her supervision during the meeting, the managing director said one more unit at the Omotosho power plant is expected to come online by the end of July, while the Alaoji power plant, which has been offline for nearly two years, is scheduled to resume operations in August.
She also said that the availability of its power plants within nine months marks a major operational milestone in Nigeria’s electricity generation sector.
She said, “My vision was anchored on optimisation. The optimisation and performance of our power plants, and that optimisation generally is around optimising our operations and then optimising the commercialisation of our stranded capacity, so optimisation is commercially and technically. So we paid a lot of attention to improving our availability. So I know that every power plant is primarily judged by its plant availability.
“And so when we came on board, we came up with a robust recovery strategy for improving our availability, and I can tell you that in nine months. We have improved our availability by 100 per cent or more, and we are still working to recover one additional unit in Omotosho that will come up by the end of this month and hopefully in the month of August, the Alaoji power plant which has been offline for about two years is also expected to come up to the grid in the month of August.”
Adighije stressed that the NDPHC remains committed to supporting the national grid and ensuring efficient use of its installed capacity of over 5,000 megawatts across 10 power plants. However, she called for increased synergy with NISO, particularly in grid access, dispatch fairness, and operational flexibility.
“We understand NISO’s quasi-regulatory role, but it’s important to note that as a government-owned generation company, our operational realities differ from private GENCOs,” she explained. “We operate under stringent public procurement laws, which can affect our speed of execution. We appeal for regulatory consideration in areas where applicable.”
She also highlighted the NDPHC’s critical investments across the power value chain. “We’ve executed over 50 330kV transmission substations and more than 25 132kV substations, adding over 9,000MVA in transformer capacity. This makes NDPHC the largest contributor to Nigeria’s power infrastructure development,” she noted.
Responding, the Managing Director of NISO, Abdul Bello Mohammed, pledged the operator’s readiness to collaborate with the NDPHC in optimising generation, dispatch coordination, and frequency control.
“I must commend the strides you’ve made. NDPHC is by far the largest utility in the country, and if we can fully optimise your 5,000MW capacity, Nigeria will be better for it,” Mohammed said.
“You have a minimum available capacity of 2,000MW, yet what we’re dispatching from your plants ranges between 500 and 800MW. That’s not good enough. Deliberate efforts must be made to bridge this gap,” he said.
Mohammed emphasised the importance of fast-track integration with West African Power Pool (WAPP) markets, where excess capacity from NDPHC can be exported for revenue generation.
He also urged the company to take steps toward full integration into the SCADA/EMS (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition/Energy Management System) platform to support real-time dispatch and grid stability.
“We’ve written to all GENCOs on SCADA EMS integration. It’s a fundamental tool for grid reliability. Additionally, compliance with free governor mode operation is non-negotiable for frequency stability,” he added.
According to the NISO boss, some NDPHC power stations are compliant, but many are not. “When only a few generating units provide critical ancillary services, they bear the entire system stress. That must change.”
He also raised concerns about the Economic Merit Order Dispatch, vowing to review the model to ensure fairness and eliminate biases against public GENCOs.
“We are working to develop a least-cost national grid expansion plan. In the past, projects were driven by political considerations. Now, we must prioritise value and cost-efficiency. We expect NDPHC to provide project data to aid in simulation and planning.”
At the end of the meeting, both parties reaffirmed their commitment to deepen ties as the power sector transitions under the 2023 Electricity Act.
https://punchng.com/alaoji-power-plant-begins-operations-next-month-ndphc
Leave a Comment