Governor Mbah Targets Ambitious 1,000MW Coal-Fired Power Capacity for Enugu State, Pushing for Grid Independence

Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, has unveiled a bold and ambitious plan to fundamentally overhaul the state’s power infrastructure, aiming to generate a minimum of 1,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity using its vast and high-quality coal deposits. This new target is a significant increase from the 700MW goal the administration had previously set, demonstrating a pronounced “paradigm shift” in its strategy to secure energy sufficiency.

Governor Mbah announced the plan at the Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) “Meet The Governor Series” in Lagos on September 25, where he presented a business case for investing in Enugu State. The initiative is designed to address the state’s chronic energy deficit, which currently sees it receiving a mere 70MW from the national grid, a capacity deemed wholly insufficient for the Governor’s vision to grow the state’s economy from a value of $4.4 billion to $30 billion over the next eight years.

“Our target is to see how we can use our coal to generate at least 1,000 megawatts of power. We do have technology today that makes coal utilisation less adverse to the environment. Essentially, that is the direction for us,” Governor Mbah stated at the event.

This move is particularly significant as it seeks to diversify the country’s power sources and put to use the region’s abundant, nearly-forgotten coal resource, which the Governor stressed would no longer be treated as a “stranded asset” without adequate compensation.

The push for local generation is seen as a crucial tactical change, especially after the state’s initial foray into power sector regulation. The Enugu State Electricity Regulatory Commission (EERC) previously stirred controversy with its own tariff template, which drew “brickbats” from existing generating and distribution companies that argued the agency could not determine the price of power it does not generate. Analysts note that Mbah’s 1,000MW proposal effectively responds to this argument by going into the actual business of power generation.

The article highlights that reliance on the national grid has become “antiquated and inadequate” and urges the Enugu State government to press on with the proposal, noting that genuine transformation in the power sector requires actors who are truly desirous of determining the tariff to invest in actual generation capacity. For a state with lofty economic ambitions, securing independent and adequate power supply is identified as the single most critical component for success.