Recently, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu inaugurated the new 350 Mega Watt (MW) Gwagwalada Independent Thermal Power Plant (Phase 1), projected to be completed within three (3) years. It is anticipated that the thermal plant will increase Nigeria’s cumulative power by 3,600MW, and generate multiple foreign direct investments for the country. This is a laudable move by the President, as it demonstrates the political will to bring to fruition the administration’s plan to boost power generation beyond the currently installed capacity of 12,000 MW.

Nigeria’s transmission network currently consists of a wheeling capacity of 5,300 MW, higher than the average operational generation capacity of 3, 879 MW, which is far below the total installed  generation capacity of around 12,522MW. This disparity between the installed and generation capacity is a result of the losses across the network, which reflects the critical infrastructure and operational challenges in the transmission subsector, and in the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), making it impossible for the NESI to deliver Nigeria’s present energy needs…