By Faridat Salifu
The Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) has restored five previously idle turbine units, adding 625 megawatts of electricity to Nigeria’s national grid in 2025.
The company’s Managing Director/CEO, Jennifer Adighije, said the company has spent the past year implementing a recovery plan to overhaul non-performing National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) plants and strengthen NDPHC’s finances.
She explained that when her management team assumed office in August 2024, several plants, including Ihovbor, Alaoji and Omotosho, were operating below five per cent of capacity due to poor maintenance, gas shortages and transmission constraints.
Under the new plan, NDPHC engaged original equipment manufacturers, secured gas supply agreements, and created a rapid-response maintenance team to fast-track repairs.
Adighije confirmed that the revived facilities are now contributing 125MW each from Calabar, Omotosho and Sapele plants, as well as 250MW from Ihovbor.
She added that Alaoji Power Plant, dormant for several years, is expected to resume operations in the coming weeks.
Beyond physical repairs, NDPHC is also shifting towards bilateral power sales with large creditworthy customers under the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s eligible customer framework.
The new approach is designed to boost liquidity, reduce reliance on Nigeria’s centralised electricity market and ensure cost-reflective tariffs for power supplied.
Adighije said the company has also signed joint development agreements with Oracle, Microsoft Nigeria and Haier Technologies to deploy digital tools for predictive maintenance and enterprise planning.
In addition, NDPHC is collaborating with the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) and Haier to build local manufacturing capacity and provide renewable power solutions for industries in Kano.
She acknowledged that a persistent liquidity crisis caused by unpaid debts from market participants remains the company’s biggest challenge, but stressed that restructuring of power sales and clearing of gas payment backlogs are helping to stabilise operations.
Adighije pledged that NDPHC would sustain its recovery drive to raise generation capacity, improve asset utilisation and support national grid stability.
