FG seals 1125mw solar deal with 14 firms

The Federal Government, on Thursday, sealed a Power Purchase Agreement with 14 firms to generate 1125 megawatts of electricity from solar before the end of next year.

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, supervised the PPA signing ceremony between the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) and the 14 investors in Abuja.

He said the challenges facing the country in the Niger Delta and its impact on national power supply are making the government rethink the entire energy mix.

The signing of the solar PPAs would allow the solar developers show their equity partners and their lenders that they have the commitment of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) through the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET). Fashola used the opportunity to speak on the reversal of tariff by the court.

He said, “Let me say that the judiciary is blameless. It has the constitutional responsibility to hear matters brought before it and to determine them in the way the arguments have been canvassed and the way that it understands.”

“But in all these, I must commend NERC for the position it has taken regarding the judgment. The Commission has shown that even though it disagrees with the judgment, it feels bound by it and it is challenging it as the law allows it to do. This is the meaning of the rule of law,” Fashola maintained.