The Federal Government is expecting 1,268 megawatts of power from the concession and development of eight brown and green field hydropower projects constructed through public private partnerships.

It was gathered that three of the power projects were already given to concessionaires, while the Federal Executive Council had approved the concession of another of the power projects.

In a February 2024 document obtained from the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation in Abuja on Friday by our correspondent, it was observed that while three of the hydropower projects had been completed, the remaining five were in various stages of completion.

The document was presented to the National Council on Water Resources and Sanitation at its 30th regular meeting by the Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Prof. Joseph Utsev.

The country has been struggling with poor power generation and supply, as electricity firms generate and distribute between 3,000MW and 4,000MW for a population of over 200 million people.

The abysmal electricity supply situation grew worse since January this year after suppliers of gas to gas-fired thermal power plants stopped supplying the product to the plants due to the $1.3bn debt of the electricity generating plants.

To ameliorate the crisis, the Federal Government has been investing in hydropower plants that do not use gas, but are run by water-powered turbines.

Others include the 563MW Odukpami power plant in Calabar, Cross River State; and the 451MW Benin-Ihovbor plant in Edo State.

It was gathered that the Omotosho plant, which has four power-generating turbines, would be sold at about $85m; while the Olorunsogo NIPP with also four turbines would cost $170m. (The PUNCH)

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