- Nigerian Government opens bids for the development of nuclear power plants.
- The plants will generate about 4000MW.
The Federal Government has launched bids to construct nuclear power plants that would generate 4,000MW of electricity for the country. This statement was made known by Dr Yau Idris, Director General, Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA), at the Nigerian International Energy Summit (NIES) in Abuja.
“It is wrong to think Nigeria can’t manage a nuclear power plant. There are mechanisms put in place that ensure any country can build a nuclear power plant,” Idris stated.
“Nigeria is trying to deliver 4,000MW of electricity through nuclear power. We are trying to construct four units, and we are at the bidding stage,” he added.
Idris said the regulatory agency had signed agreements with Russia, Pakistan, France and South Korea to build the capacity of its staff in operating the nuclear plants.
At the meeting, Mr Ifeoluwa Oyedele, Executive Director, Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) Ltd, blamed the lack of synergy across the power sector value chain for the industry’s dismal performance.
Oyedele said the power generation companies could only release about 5,000MW into the national grid due to a lack of infrastructure for transmission and distribution to end-users. He added that the company was looking at supplying power directly to end-users by signing off power purchase agreements with industrial clusters across the country.