Godknows Igali, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of 
The Niger Delta Power Holding Company of Nigeria (NDPHC), managers of the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP), has initiated efforts to recover more than 800 megawatts (MW) of electricity generated from, but stranded in, some of its power plants within the eastern supply loop.

To this end, NDPHC on Monday began an evaluation tour of its electricity transmission projects in the eastern axis, which it said had been held back from completion by alleged sundry sabotage of work on the projects.

The new effort is aimed at sorting out extant holdbacks to the projects' completion timeline and wheeling of generated electricity from power plants in the axis which are said to now generate, but cannot wheel out their outputs to the national grid.

Delays in completion of the almost 200 kilometres eastern transmission loop stretching from Ikot Ekpene in Akwa Ibom State to Ugwuaji in Enugu State for almost two years has resulted in such supply shut-in as well as project cost overrun.

Officials of NDPHC told reporters during the evaluation tour across the affected States that there are about 45 instances of sabotage on its transmission projects on the eastern axis in the form of repeated community and institutional encroachments on transmission Rights of Way (RoWs) as well as court orders stopping their contractors from going ahead with work.

The transmission lines ran along Egbema, a border town between Imo and Rivers States and should evacuate power generated from the 330MW Egbema and 563MW Calabar, Odukpani power plants.