The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, said on Wednesday in Abuja that 5,000mw of power generation was achievable before the end of 2013.
Briefing newsmen on the state of power, Nebo said the current total power generation was 3,400 megawatts and that it would increase to 4,000mw by Thursday.
He said that nothing would stop the nation from achieving 5,000mw of power before December.
Nebo said the relationship between the labour union in the power sector and the Federal Government had been cordial, adding that government was ready to pay electricity workers their severance benefits after collecting their biometric data.
He said the buyers of PHCN had paid the required 25 per cent initial payment, and that they had been given six months to pay the remaining 75 per cent before taking it over.
Nebo explained that the power outage experienced from April 5 to April 7 was due to the shutting down of the Chevron Gas Plant for maintenance and supply of additional gas.
He said the capacity of the plant was 112 mw and that when it was shut down the effect was felt by many PHCN customers.
Nebo said although the gas plant had started operation it would take some days to reach its peak.
He said that the occasional systems failures experienced in the country were due to the fact that many of the power plants were old.
The minister said that the Manitoba Hydro Company, which is taking over the management of the Transmission Company of Nigeria for three years, would leave a large number of trained staff of the company that would take over from them.
He said the Federal Government had rehabilitated PHCN power plants for Manitoba to take over.