TheCable

The Lagos state government says it hopes to generate 3,000 megawatts of power for use in the state by 2023.

According to Olawale Oluwo, commissioner for energy, the state hopes to achieve this with the Embedded Power Supply Project scheduled to commence in July.

“Our power reform programme which is the Embedded Power Project all things been equal will take off in July 2018. The house passed the law in January and the governor signed the bill into law in February,” he said on Wednesday at the ministerial press conference to mark the third year of the governor in office.

“The implementation committee is already working and a lot of work has been going on the field and everywhere. We would do our Expression of Interest sometime in June and that process will kick-start this project.”

According to Oluwo, the state will also embark on the reforms of the downstream petroleum sector, gas sector, solid minerals sector and regulatory reforms.

“The essence of all this is that we want to give Lagos State energy and security, and to achieve this, you must have security in electricity, gas and petroleum products.

“The overall objective of the gas reform is to open the Lagos gas market to local and international players in order to make the Niger Delta gas less critical to future of Lagos economy (the ultimate goal is to make Lagos state to be fully independent of Niger Delta gas in three to five years).”

He said seven agencies will oversee how gas pipelines will get to homes in Ikeja, Victoria Island and Ikoyi.