Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr.
Babatunde Fashola SAN, Thursday in Lagos advised
industrialists, directors and other employers of
labour in the country not to panic or downsize their
staff in the face of current power supply challenges
saying the Federal Government has put a roadmap
in place that would ensure progressive power supply
from incremental to steady and then uninterrupted
power supply nationwide.
Babatunde Fashola SAN, Thursday in Lagos advised
industrialists, directors and other employers of
labour in the country not to panic or downsize their
staff in the face of current power supply challenges
saying the Federal Government has put a roadmap
in place that would ensure progressive power supply
from incremental to steady and then uninterrupted
power supply nationwide.
Speaking at two major events – the Quarterly
Business Luncheon of the Institute of Directors
(IOD) and the 13th Distinguished Electrical and
Electronics Engineers Annual Lecture, Fashola, who
was Guest Speaker at the IOD Business Luncheon,
underscored his optimism that the current
challenges facing the power sector would be over
soon, saying the present administration was
committed to ensuring a sustainable power supply
in the country.
The Minister, who was also Guest of Honour at the
Distinguished Electrical and Electronic Engineers
Annual Lecture of the Nigerian Institution of
Electrical and Electronic Engineers (NIEEE), told the
industrialists, entrepreneurs, directors and other
employers of Labour in the Organised Private Sector
not to panic by downsizing, shutting down or laying
off their staff saying that the nation would
overcome the challenges of unsteady power supply
just as it had overcome other critical national
challenges.
Establishing the context within which to analyse the
current situation in the power sector, Fashola traced
the evolution of the country’s electricity industry to
the 1950s when the nation’s electricity was
managed by the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria
(ECN) which later gave way to the National Electric
Power Authority (NEPA) which finally handed over
to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN)
saying that in all those transitions, the generation,
transmission and distribution of power was in the
hands of the government which also issued meters.
Noting that he inherited a privatised power sector
where majority shares of the sector was sold to
private companies, Fashola said the majority share
was sold in 2013, 63 years after, when government
unbundled the PHCN and sold the generation, and
distribution processes to private companies adding
that government only retained the transmission
aspect of power which it manages through the
Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
Government, the Minister said, also created
regulatory agencies like the Nigerian Bulk Electricity
Trader (NBET) the Nigerian Electricity Management
and Safety Agency (NEMSA) and the Nigerian
Electricity Liability Management Company
(NELMCO) adding that by unbundling the PHCN
into 18 companies, government stopped producing
and distributing power as well as issuing meters.
He added, “Therefore the power sector I inherited is
one that the role of government is reduced to policy
and regulation” adding that the functions of
generation and distribution were now carried out by
the Generation Companies (GenCos) and the
Distribution Companies (DisCos) which also have
the function of issuing meters.
Noting that the power sector would have been in
transition for three years in November this year out
of which the present administration has spent one
year and he would have spent seven months as
Minister, Fashola asked, “The context, therefore, is,
between 1950 and 2013 what did we achieve in
power?” pointing out that in all that time, only
4,000MW was generated while not all consumers
were metered out of the six million known
consumers.
“What is reasonable to expect within three years of
privatization and one year of a new government in
respect of a problem that could not be solved in 63
years?”, he asked, adding, “It is in this context that
we can discuss my role as policy maker, regulatory
supervisor and enabler for the private sector-led
electricity market”.
Noting that the real problem in the sector was lack
of sufficient electricity, Fashola, who recalled that
the highest generation capacity, achieved only in
February this year, was 5074MW for a country of
no less than 150 million people as against Chad
and Liberia with 84MW and 40MW electricity
demands respectively, said the solution to
insufficient power was to get more power adding,
“This is the basis for leg one of our roadmap-
Incremental Power”.
Elucidating further on the plan to produce sufficient
power, Fashola listed the various power projects
being undertaken across the country, some of which
have either been completed and working or are in
advanced stages of completion, to include repair of
gas turbines, strengthening transmission to
evacuate power and the National Independent
Power Project (NIPP), Gbarain which, according to
him, has now been completed and is being tested.
Other power sources targeted to increase power
supply, according to him, also include expanding
Qua Iboe, completing Kaduna Power Plant with
generation capacity of 215MW, Kasimbilla with
40MW, Dadin Kowa with 39MW, Azura with
300MW, Zungeru 700MW and Gurara 30MW,
adding that other sources besides gas powered
plants include Zuma Coal, Mambilla Hydro with
1,200MW and Solar which, according to him, is
targeted for rural electrification and universities,
small hydro-dams as well as some uncompleted
constituency projects and embedded generation
such as Parias Power.
To achieve Steady Power, Fashola, who
recommended a full audit of consumers in the
country, which, according to him, could best be
done through a comprehensive national census
exercise, said it would be impossible to provide
steady power supply without a data on the number
of people requiring the utility. The Minister added
that such an audit would help to bring all
consumers into the metering net so as to make
them pay for what they consume adding that this
would boost the finances of the power generating
and distribution companies to deliver more power
and for maintenance of power facilities.
The Minister said the prospect of achieving
uninterrupted power lay in the maintenance of
sustained growth in the sector to match population
increase, energy conservation in homes and offices,
energy preservation and conservation of water and
loss reduction.
He, however, noted that even if all the other
variables were met, the hope of steady and
uninterrupted power supply could only be assured if
the challenges facing the sector were solved some
of which he said include, the management of the
expectation of the people to have power
immediately after privatization because of the
impression created that this would happen
immediately after, agitations by various aggrieved
groups that sometimes lead to attacks on power
assets, vandalism of power assets, power theft and
problems of payment of bills which include
assaults on collectors.
Stressing the importance of conservation in
achieving uninterrupted power at the 13th DEEEAL
Lecture which he earlier attended, Fashola said at
every phase of the roadmap conservation of energy
was vital “because whatever is wasted will never be
enough” adding that getting incremental power and
then steady and uninterrupted power would require
that what would be generated would not be wasted.
The Minister, who recalled that the nation achieved
5,074MW of electricity for the first time this year
declared, “Energy efficiency is critical at all stages
even when we are trying to get incremental power at
this stage when we have the capacity to produce
about 5,000MW, assuming we have no gas issues”,
adding, “That 5,000MW can serve more than the
people which it is currently serving if we conserve
it”.
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