… as Governor Eno declares emergency in power sector
By Shadrach Okon
The Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Power and Acting Managing Director of Ibom Power Limited, Engr Cammilus Umoh has lamented that government investment in the power sector has suffered a huge set back due to the high level of vandalization of power infrastructure in the state.
Engr Cammilus Umoh made this known while speaking on Day-2 of the ongoing Exco Ministerial Briefings/End of Year Review in Uyo.
According the Power Boss, while Akwa Ibom State is the state with the highest investment in power infrastructure in South South and South East region, regrettably, the state is ironically also one with the highest number of cases of vandalization of transformers and other power utilities, and called on communities to take ownership of government facilities in their domain and protect same against vandalism and theft.
Presenting his scorecard in the Power Sector, Engr Cammilus Umoh said, the mandate of Ibom Power is to generate and supply power to the national grid or islands as the case demands.
He explained that the GenCo (Ibom Power) which started operations in December 2009 is a thermal (gas fired) facility with 191 Megawatts of installed power generating capacity with three turbines.
Highlighting the key achievements and milestones of the Ministry of Power for year 2024, Engr Umoh noted that though the Ministry had a target of generating a combined 100MW of power to feed unto the national grid, the company provided an average of 50MW up to November 11, 2024, provided 25-27MW and Island power to the state during moments of national grid collapse and successfully carried out capacity demo test 16/12/24 (NBET/TCN/NCC) on December 16th, 2024, which saw the company generating a total of 107MW, the highest generation in 12 months with an IPC score of 89%.
He listed some of the challenges faced in achieving set goals to include low tariffs, timely inspection and maintenance, limited uptake by the DISCO (Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company), due to energy theft and by-pass which can be resolved through collaboration on increased revenue inflows through meter roll out, constrained evacuation route due to the old Aba/Alaoji-Itu 81 KM × 330kv line, frequent grid collapse and forex vagaries resulting from the over 80% import content and gas price being in dollars, amongst others.
In his speech, Akwa Ibom State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno declared a State of Emergency in the Power Sector in the state, with a target of generating and transmitting 24 hours power supply to boost socio-economic activities and stimulate industrial growth.
To achieve this, the state government he said, will hold a Power Summit in March 2025, where a Power Infrastructure Committee will be set up to collaborate with the Commissioner for Power towards the realization of the administration’s energy vision for the state.
