The Enugu government says it will increase the state’s electricity capacity from 70 megawatts received from the national grid to 700 megawatts through private sector investment.

Governor Peter Mbah said this in Enugu on Tuesday at an event organised by the Enugu State Electricity Regulatory Commission (EERC) to review its draft regulatory instruments.

Mr Mbah said increasing electricity capacity aligned with his administration’s vision to meet the state’s power needs and grow Enugu’s economy from $4.4 billion to $30 billion.

He added that his government was eager to get the inputs of industry stakeholders into the state’s draft electricity regulatory framework to make the state’s electricity market viable.

Mr Mbah said the campaign promise to resuscitate pipe-borne water, improve security, education, healthcare delivery services, and others would not have been possible without a drastic improvement in electricity capacity.

The governor assured the industry players of the continued independence of EERC so that they could operate without political or administrative interference.

EERC chair Chijioke Okonkwo said, “We have given ourselves some projected targets that within the next two years, Enugu state should be consuming at least 300 megawatts and by 2030, we would have hit at least 700 megawatts.

“Right now, we are getting approximately 70 megawatts from the national grid. This is not sufficient for us to say that we want to put ourselves in the position to industrialise. We want to change that narrative. The industry players and operators want a place where they can carry out commercially viable businesses.”

Mr Okonkwo said the engagement would allow stakeholders to make inputs and enable them to agree on the regulations to support investment initiatives before finalisation, adoption, and implementation of the regulatory framework.

Siemens Energy Nigeria’s managing director, Seun Suleiman, lauded the transparency of the State Government through its regulatory agency.

The acting managing director of the Infrastructure Bank, Nkiru Chime, described Enugu as proactive “in setting out how the electricity market will play.”

(NAN)