Rivers State has been in the forefront of Independent Power Project in the country. Available data shows that PHCN has found it a difficult task to evacuate all the power available at the 150MW Omoku Power Station Commissioned on 5th December 2006 because of the inadequacy of the transmission infrastructure of PHCN on Z2 and Z4 in Port Harcourt. The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Power, Rivers State Government spoke to the Publisher of EnergyNews, Uzo Nzeogu, excerpts:

That Port Harcourt is the hub of the oil and gas business in Nigeria is not in dispute, that it is the fastest growing city in the country is also not in dispute. We have continued to witness unprecedented influx of many companies in the oil and gas sector, Banking and Finance and other businesses into the State capital. These in turn have given rise to the rapid growth in the demand for electricity and other related utilities, but, whereas the demand for electricity power has continued to witness steady growth, there has not been any corresponding increase in available power from the National grid.

Instead, supply has been on the decline. It is common knowledge that without adequate supply of electricity, no country can attain industrial and economic regeneration. The case of Nigeria is a very pathetic one, given the abundant resources available to this country. Our underdevelopment and high cost of production is the result of several years of neglect of the power sector, and the dependence on isolated house generators for production.

The main trust of the Rivers State Integrated Independent Power Project comprising of power generation (3 Power Plants at Omoku, Trans Amadi and Eleme), 132KV double circuit transmission line (210km on land and 90km 33KV Sub-marine power cable) and distribution infrastructure (5 nos. Injection sub-stations and over 80% of distribution infrastructure in the State) was to bridge the gap between the power supply from the National grid PHCN and power demands in the State and to strengthen the distribution network in the State. The survey conducted in 1999, had shown that the power demand for Rivers State was a little above 280MW. But at that point in time the only source of supply from PHCN was less than 30MW. To make matters worse, even the little available power could not be effectively distributed because of the state of the distribution infrastructure in the State, particularly in Port Harcourt area. They were at various stages of decay.