From Kingsley Jeremiah, Abuja

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), yesterday, said the government is determined to scale electricity generation, as Mainstream Energy Solutions Limited announced a recovery of 600 megawatts (MW) from the Kainji hydroelectric plant.

The government-owned plant, concessioned to the company in 2013 with a key performance indicator of recovering the plant to a nameplate capacity of 760MW with the new development, has witnessed about 80 per cent overhauling.

Mainstream’s Managing Director, Lamu Audu, disclosed that six of the plant’s eight generating units are now fully operational, following the successful commissioning of a newly rehabilitated 80MW unit, which will now come on the grid after a 30-day trial.

The $33 million project initiated two and a half years ago, brings the company within reach of its original mandate of restoration of Kainji’s 760MW capacity.

But while the achievement marks a significant gain for domestic power supply, it also draws attention to Nigeria’s long-standing challenges, evacuation bottlenecks, systemic underutilisation, and persistent delays in settling market invoices.

Across the country, including the plants, units that should add power to the grid are deliberately shut down due to the inability of transmission and distribution infrastructure.

“When we took over in 2013, not a single unit was working. We launched a phased recovery plan using limited internal resources. This 80MW addition is not just about meeting KPIs. It’s about improving livelihoods and delivering on our responsibility to Nigerians,” said Audu.

He noted that despite having recovered the bulk of Kainji’s installed capacity and maintaining performance at Jebba, another plant under its care, Mainstream is struggling with significant generation capacity that cannot be fully dispatched.

He said: “Only about 30 per cent of our invoices are paid, and the existing transmission system can’t evacuate all the power we generate. Yet, we keep investing because we believe it’s wrong to criticise the government while failing to meet our own obligations.”

Beyond internal reforms, Mainstream is also advocating for Nigeria to leverage its energy advantage in West Africa. Despite initiating the West African Power Pool (WAPP), Nigeria remains poorly integrated into the regional grid due to weak infrastructure and a lack of synchronisation with neighbouring countries.

“We generate the cheapest electricity in West Africa. With the proper infrastructure, many of our neighbours would prefer to buy from us rather than build expensive plants. That’s a huge missed opportunity for forex earnings and job creation,” said Audu.