The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Electricity

  • Fed Govt targets 5,000 megawatts by December

    The Federal Government is targeting generation and distribution of 5,000 megawatts of electricity by December.
    The plan was part of the outcome of the 60th National Economic Council (NEC) meeting presided by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday.
    Four state governors including Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun), Willie Obiano (Anambra), Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara) and Mohammed Badero (Jigawa) briefed State House correspondents at the end of the meeting.
    The Jigawa State governor, who said that the council was briefed on developments in the power sector, said that it was informed that there is overall increase in power supply by 29% as at the first 6-weeks of the new Administration, compared to the last weeks of the previous administration.
    According to him, power generation reached 4.662MW by July 29, 2015, as the administration targets 5,000MW by December.
    He said that the Council has urged State Governments to ensure payments of electricity bills by their vendors MDA, stressing that the Council was informed that at the moment there is a 45% default rate.
    The governors, he said, were also urged to assist with provision of security to reduce vandalization of power distribution assets.
    He said that they were also urged to encourage embedded generation for State owned facilities.
    According to him, the TCN management contract has been extended for another one year.

    He said that the Council was also informed that some of the next top priorities for the next two months in the power sector included repair of stranded hydro capacity, reduce load rejection by Discos, stop haemonhage of gas from power plants to industrial off-takers and fix major transmission and transformation constraints.

  • Electricity supply; have we come to our wit’s end?

    SIR:  At last, at long last, people are talking, people who should have been talking for years.  Everybody now seems to feel the pinch.  Power supply to the Nigerian people has become nightmarish, an embarrassment and a veritable threat to our rural and urban economy.

    The odds are heavily weighted against innocent citizens of our country.  From ECN (Electricity Corporation of Nigeria), NEPA to PHCN and now to the pretenders known as DISCO, Nigeria is slowly grinding to a screeching halt.  At first, it was epileptic power supply, later, unstable power supply and now in many areas of Nigeria, total blackout.

    The results? Flight of industrial and manufacturing companies to neighbouring countries; depletion and desolation of industrial activities and structures in industrial hubs – Ikeja, Ilupeju, Agbara and Ibadan in the South-west; Onitsha, Nnewi, Owerri in the South-east; Port Harcourt, Calabar in the South-south; Ilorin, Jos in the North East.  Without any doubt, the country’s skill and semi-skilled labour which need electricity for self-employment are lying idle on daily basis, throwing into the streets and creating new urchins who are otherwise respectable Nigerians.  And the story continues.

    Before the recent badly executed privatization programme of the Federal Government, power generation, transmission and distribution belonged exclusively to the government.  The complaint then was that power was inadequate and epileptic that public servants who ran the power sector were corrupt, inefficient and unpatriotic.  That government has no business in business.  And so the theory went on.  The result was to divide the country into spheres of influence for boggy capitalists and industrialists whose  major attribute was their capability to burrow themselves (like earthworms) in to the seat of power.

    The result is what we now have, complete blackout by DISCOS in vast  areas of their coverage, punitive measures by DISCO management , acting as an accuser, prosecutor and judges, and daring any citizens to challenge them.  Primitive and obscene measures against consumers, taking law into their own hands and above all, clamping on consumers, bills that are mere guess work.  I am not sure of any civilized society in the world where providers of essential commodity like power will assume consumption rate for large sections of the population who, through no fault of theirs, have no access to meters.

    The question thus arises, how did these exploiters get their authority for distributing power without responsibility for generation and transmission?  It is quite safe to say.  It is the Nigerian Character.  The power given to the distribution companies (DISCOS) are alarmingly oppressive that cannot even be found in one-party states. Wherein lies the competitiveness which the capitalist system embraces in the present arrangement? What financial obligations do the parties (Federal Government and distribution companies) owe each other that the consumer cannot even raise a finger?

    The issue now is that the Nigerian people are suffering and are being oppressed by pseudo-capitalists and opportunists who profited from the financial manipulations of past years. The nation needs to be saved. If power supply is upgraded and maintained at a higher level, unemployment which presently stands at 71% will drop below 50%. Why can’t we learn to take our destiny into our hands? The new administration should hurry up to the rescue in accordance with the popular belief in change.

     

    • Deji Fasuan MON, JP

    Isato, Ado-Ekiti.

  • U.S., Nigeria partner to increase electricity access

    U.S., Nigeria partner to increase electricity access

    Electricity supply is a major problem in Nigeria. Successive governments have tried to solve this challenge, which many believe holds the key to solving other challenges facing the country. Yesterday, the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) unveils a solar energy plan towards increasing electricity access, writes OLUKOREDE YISHAU

    It is known as the Power Africa initiative. It is President Barack Obama’s baby. Its aim is to improve electricity access in Africa, of which the United States sees Nigeria as perhaps the most important.

    Yesterday, as President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to the United States was wrapped up, the United States Trade and Development Agency provided a grant to Quaint Global Energy Solutions for a solar power project being developed in the North.

    The significance of the deal is driven home by the fact that the North is said to enjoy about one per cent of the power supply in the country.

    Chairman, Nigerian Electricity regulatory Commission (NERC) Dr. Sam Amadi explained that the North does not have sufficient connection and the lines are weak, making the lines transferring power to the North constrained and only able to take 100 to 1000 megawatts of electricity.

    Speaking in Abuja on Energy and Household poverty, at the Annual lecture of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), Amadi said the national imperative would be to provide more power to the North.

    Amadi said: “Today in Nigeria, there are many people who do not even have access to electricity talk more of the electricity bill and that number is close to 40 and above, people who have no connection whatsoever at all to electricity. So the first marker to energy poverty is access, to people who do not have access to electricity.

    “Why do we not have access enough? Of course we are a big country and we have just 6000 or 7000 megawatts available capacity not supplied. The constraints to electricity is access and connection, even if we have today 10 to 20 megawatts of electricity many parts of Nigeria will still not have light because there is no connection to those places, that is why the government created the rural electrification agency.

    “What we have been doing with the past is supplying transformers to low areas so if you put transformers to a community where the lines are weak, the lines cannot go. Today the whole of the North receives about only 1% or less than one percent of supply, why? Because the lines transferring power to the whole north cannot take, it is constrained, it can take maybe 100 to 1000 megawatts, the urgent work now is to finish the line from Calabar to Markurdi to free more power to the North.

    “To see very clearly between electricity supply and poverty, the same part of the north is the area that has the largest indicators of poverty and it is still the same area that has the least supply of electricity, so the national imperative would be to provide more power to the North as a way of reducing poverty.

    “Nigeria is poor generally but relative poverty we have more in the North, so what we are doing more as regulators is that we are looking at imbedded generation; you know that our networks are very poor; they are not good so even if we have 10,000 megawatts today on the grid, we may not be able to more than 1000 megawatts or above to the north so it is very urgent that we improve the whole network to the north, it is urgent that we use the next new regulation to provide more imbedded power.”

    Commenting on the agreement signed for the solar power project, USTDA Director Leocadia  Zak, who signed the grant agreement with Quaint’s President, Mobolaji W.Durodola, said:  “This project is a great example of how the U.S. and Nigeria are working together to increase electricity access under President Obama’s Power Africa initiative. By working together on projects like this one, we can ensure that more Nigerians have access to renewable energy.”

    Durodola described the deal as the tonic for the much-needed clean and renewable energy.

    “USTDA’s support is a step in the right direction for the development of much-needed clean and renewable energy capacity for Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa,” said Mr. Durodola.  “Quaint is happy to receive this grant and is committed to adding value, talent and energy into the Nigerian power sector.”

    Quaint, a Nigerian company specifically organised to develop renewable power projects, is working with a U.S. energy project developer, Tetra Tech ES, Inc. (Pasadena, California), on a feasibility study to determine the best technical configurations for the project. 50 megawatts of clean, affordable energy is expected to be supplied Kaduna State. It also has the potential to leverage over $160 million in public and private capital.

    The feasibility study will include the development of initial costing for the project’s engineering, procurement and construction, as well as the preparation of an operations and maintenance

    Tetra Tech will also provide training for Quaint employees to support the company’s capacity to develop and operate the project.

    USTDA Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer Enoh Titilayo Ebong, who oversees the operations of the agency and manages staff responsible for developing and executing USTDA’s program activities, summed up the importance of the deal in an article released yesterday titled Investing in Nigeria’s future.

    He said: “When I was growing up in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, my father used to say that his future was in his past. In other words, you can never know how what happens today might impact tomorrow.

    “My father, Ime James Ebong, used to regale my sisters and me with stories about rising through the ranks of the Nigerian Civil Service after the country gained independence in 1960. As the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Economic Development and Reconstruction, he worked to coordinate foreign investment that could help build infrastructure and promote growth. He believed strongly in a global Nigeria, and traveled to the United States many times to establish partnerships with American companies.

    “My father died several years ago, but I think of him often. I thought of him when I joined the civil service at the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, a U.S. foreign assistance agency that does exactly what he did – collaborate with U.S. companies to craft solutions to development challenges in Nigeria and around the world. And I thought of him yesterday, when President Obama welcomed the new President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, to the United States.

    “Economic development will be the focus of many discussions during President Buhari’s visit: Working together to increase trade and investment between our two countries. Building business-to-business partnerships that can support sustainable development. Collaborating to increase access to electricity for Nigerians, most of whom live without reliable power.”

    He continued:  “Together, we are making important progress in all of these areas. Last summer, President Obama convened industry leaders from the United States, Nigeria and across Africa at the first U.S.-Africa Business Forum. And deepening our trade and investment ties will be an important focus of his trip to the continent later this week.

    “Nigeria has demonstrated its commitment to increasing these ties by taking a number of steps to collaborate with the private sector. When I first came to USTDA, the Nigerian government had recently begun to open up its telecommunications sector. We have been connecting Nigerian telecom companies with U.S. experts who can help them modernize their infrastructure. For example, we are currently helping Nigeria’s Main One Cable Company plan for the extension of a 300-mile undersea fiber optic network from Lagos to Port Harcourt. Through their work with a U.S. company, HIP Consult, Inc. (Washington, DC), Main One will increase the number of people and businesses with access to telecom services throughout the region.

    “Because this model has proven so successful, we are adopting it to help our Nigerian partners privatize their electricity sector. In fact, we’re working across the value chain to bring energy to more Nigerians. As just one example, today we provided agrantto Quaint Global Energy Solutions for a solar power project they’re developing in Kaduna State. Quaint is a small Nigerian company specifically organized to develop renewable power projects. They will work with a U.S. energy project developer, Tetra Tech ES, Inc. (Pasadena, California), to determine the best technical configurations for the project.

    “This effort will bring 50 megawatts of much-needed clean, affordable energy to northern Nigeria. It also has the potential to leverage over $160 million in public and private capital. It’s a great example of how the U.S. and Africa are working together to increase electricity access under President Obama’s Power Africa initiative.

    “By collaborating on projects like this one, we are helping to ensure that more Nigerians have access to renewable energy. And we are helping to strengthen economic ties between Nigeria and the U.S.

    “As both a daughter of Nigeria and a proud American citizen, I am starting to see how my father’s past shaped my future. His commitment to public service – and to Nigeria’s growth – inspired me to join the U.S. government’s efforts to promote development by leveraging the expertise and resources of the U.S. private sector. I know he would agree that, by strengthening trade and development ties today, we are helping to ensure a safer, more prosperous tomorrow. “

    Perhaps with more of this sort of project, the country will join the league of major players in the clean and renewable energy circle.

  • Nigeria loses 40% of generated electricity to theft, says expert

    Managing Director, Frontier Oil and Gas Limited, Thomas Dada, has said 40 per cent of generated electricity in the country is lost to theft and that a lot of people who use electricity do not pay for it.

    He called for the regional distribution system, saying that part of the problem of the  sector is that there is huge amount of power loss due to the centralisation of the grid system as well as transmission.

    He said: “If we can address the centralisation of the grid system, by decentralising the transmission system to be regional rather than central, we should go back to regional distribution system and people can offload to another system if they got excess capacity in their region. Again, we need to stop electricity theft by prosecuting those who steal electricity, those who by-pass meters, and those who use it without paying for it.”

    According to him, these energy thieves are not only shortchanging the distribution companies but also the entire nation. He added that it is affecting everybody that has invested in the power sector

    Dada accused the workers of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) of complicity in the sabotage, adding that they are responsible for sending out estimated bills and colluding with customers to steal electricity.

    He said the DISCOs had inherited a terrible system from the old PHCN which he said had consequently created the enormous problems confronting the power sector.

    “When the DISCOs who are at the end of gas to power value chain are not making sufficient income, they are unable to make profit which implies, ultimately, that part of the value chain that is the gas producers who produce the gas that is used by the GENCOs to generate the power that is sold to the people, don’t make enough money,” he said.

    He said smart metering will address most of these lapses, adding that it will put in place discipline in the electricity use.

  • Order against new electricity tariff subsisting, says court

    Order against new electricity tariff subsisting, says court

    Justice Mohammed Idris of the Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday renewed the order restraining the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) from implementing the new electricity tariff.

    The new billing for power consumption was to take effect from June 1.

    Justice Idris, in a short ruling, held: “The ex-parte order remains valid and subsisting.”

    The judge had restrained NERC and the electricity distribution companies from effecting any increment in electricity tariff pending the hearing and determination of a suit by a Lagos lawyer, Toluwani Adebiyi.

    Yesterday, Adebiyi said NERC had been served but was yet to respond. He urged the court to renew the order so as to preserve the subject matter of the suit.

    He said: “My Lord, everybody is affected. Even this court is running on generator. There is a need to stop them from increasing the electricity tariff because Nigerians can’t afford such and there is no justification for such increment.”

    NERC’s legal officer Ifeanyi Umunna said the commission had complied with the interim orders, adding that the commission was in the process of appointing a lawyer to defend the suit. He pleaded for more time to do so.

    Adebiyi, in the suit, is seeking an order restraining the NERC from implementing any upward review of electricity tariff without a meaningful and significant improvement in power supply at least for 18 hours in a day in most communities in Nigeria.

    He also wants an order restraining the NERC from foisting compulsory service charge on pre-paid meters not until “the meters are designed to read charges per second of consumption and not a flat rate of service not rendered or power not used.”

    He also wants the service charge on pre-paid meters not to be enforced until there is visible efficient and reliable power supply like those of foreign countries where the idea of service charge was borrowed.

    Adebiyi is asking for an order of court mandating the NERC to do the needful and generate more power to meet the electricity use of Nigerians, adding that the needful should include and not limited to a multiple long-term financing approach, sourced from the banks, capital market, insurance and other sectors of finance to power the sector.

    The lawyer is asking the court to mandate the NERC to make available to all Nigerians within a reasonable time of maximum of two years, prepaid meters as a way to stop the throat-cutting indiscriminate estimated bill and which must be devoid of the arbitrary service charge, but only chargeable on power consumed.

    In an affidavit in support of the suit personally deposed to by the applicant, the lawyer lamented that despite the motto and mission of NERC which were expressly stated as “keeping the light on and to meet the needs of Nigeria for safe, adequate, reliable and affordable electricity,” most communities in Nigeria do not get more than 30 minutes if electricity supply, while the remaining 23 hours and 30 minutes were always without light and in total darkness.

    “Nigeria poor masses are paying an estimated and indiscriminate residential bills ranging from N5,000 to N18,000, spending an average of N15, 000 to N20,000 for fuel to maintain generating set,” he said.

    Justice Idris adjourned till July 9 for hearing.

  • Electricity Board cautions motorists

    Lagos State Electricity Board (LSEB) General Manager Damilola Ogunbiyi has urged Lagosians and road users  to exercise caution,  especially at night. The warning, he said, became imperative because fuel scarcity has affected  the illumination of street lights

    The areas affected, Ogunbiyi said, included Eko Bridge, Funsho Williams Avenue, Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, Iju Road, Akerele Street, Adeniran Ogunsanya Street, Murtala Mohammed Way, Ogudu Road, Fatai Atere Way and surrounding streets within Mushin, Itire Road, Awolowo Road, Falomo Bridge, Keystone Crescent, Adeyemo Alakija Street, Sanusi Fafunwa Street, Adeola Hopewell Street, Adeola Odeku, Akin Adesola, Raymond Njoku and Maduike Street Security he said, had been increased on these areas.

    He warned that knocking down street light poles and vandalism of public lighting installations would not be condoned.

  • We’re dying, Ondo electricity workers cry out

    Hundreds of contract staff of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) in Ondo State marched on Akure, the state capital, to protest the non-payment of their severance package.

    The aggrieved protesters carried placards with various inscriptions, such as “We served for over 15 years without payment and benefits”; “Over 70 casual workers are yet to be regularised in Akure business district”; “No regulation, no payment and many of us are dead”

    They said they were laid off verbally and the management had been promising to pay them.

    The contract staff lamented that many of them have served for 15 years, with nothing to show for it.

    A protester, Tunde Bada, said it was very unfortunate that after two years of privatisation they are yet to receive anything from the government.

    “We are Nigerians and how can we serve in our fatherland without pay?

    “Some are dead and it is so sad that they died without receiving their benefits.

    “We are pleading with the government to help us, we are dying, you can see some of these aged people, we have dependents.”

    Jacob Aluko lamented that he could not afford to feed his family again.

    Aluko, who was the head of the Human Resources Department at Idanre, urged the incoming government to listen to their complaints by ensuring they are paid.

  • ‘Nigeria has capacity to generate 9000mw electricity now’

    Deliberate sabotage by those concerned, weak transmission infrastructure and the inability of the government to compel those who are behind the pipeline vandalism to face the wrath of the law are major barriers hampering the nation’s power generation capacity.

    The President, Nigerian Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (NIEEE), an organ of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Akpan Michael who attempted a prognosis of the crisis in the power sector, said Nigeria has the capacity of generating about 9000mw but however complains that there is dearth of distribution facilities.

    While noting that the power roadmap provides a clear pathway to achieving a certain level of generation and distribution in the country, it can only be achieved if the government contains the incidents of pipeline vandalisation across the country.

    “The investment in the power sector has gone to a stage that it is just a step and we get there put aside the incapability of the regime in handling those that are into this act of destruction,” he said.

    While urging the incoming government to take decisive steps to address the issue appropriately, the NIEEE boss said: “We are getting to that point vandals will come in and disrupt the system, there has been a lot of infrastructure put in place in terms of gas pipeline distribution and transmission.”

    He further advised the incoming government to improve on the power roadmap of the present administration, adding that it is left for the incoming government to expedite action on improving power infrastructure in the country.

    He also commended the Lagos State government for building the Independent Power Plants to power the streets of Lagos and other infrastructure in the state adding the level of achievements in the state will live in decades.

  • Poultry group canvasses electricity tariff relief

    Poultry group canvasses electricity tariff relief

    The Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN)  is seeking  the government‘s support for  electricity tariff relief for producers.

    Its National President, Dr Ayoola Oduntan, said  electricity tariffs are too high for profitable business.

    Addressing its summit in Lagos, Oduntan said PAN has got the support of Nigerian Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC) for a reduction in electricity tariffs.

    To this end,he  said the association is working with NERC to ensure the directives to Electricity  Distribution Companies to implement the agriculture and agro based industries tariffs for the  sector, including poultry farming.

    According to him, the price  poultry  farmers are  offering  the market does not even recover cost of production, let alone a reasonable profit margin.

    He warned of  declining production while pleading for a rescue package, including some concessionary loans for farmers to bring them back into business and deferring loan payments for those who are surviving on the edge.

    According to him, if the poultry business is not rescued, the situation can worsen: production would decline further as more farmers leave, leading to squeezed supplies.

    He  urged  the  government to introduce policies and programmes for reducing their production cost, adding  that  though  poultry entrepreneurs  are trying  to achieve   self-sufficiency in poultry products,   they cannot compete with  smuggled  products from neighbouring markets .

    According to him, around 70 per cent of their investment goes to procure feed, adding that the producers have no option but to import feed as local production cannot meet the growing demand.

    He urged the government to encourage farmers to grow maize and soybean to bring down poultry production costs, adding that the industry will be competitive only if the government encouraged farmers to embrace new technologies.

  • Electricity supply drops to 2,817.05MW

    Electricity supply drops to 2,817.05MW

    Power supply from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has dropped from 2,979.06 Mega Watts (MW) recorded last Sunday to 2,817.05MW on Tuesday, the Federal Ministry of Power said.

    Supply by Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, according to the power statistics which the ministry posted on its website yesterday, dipped by 162.01MW in the period under review.

    Of the 2,880.72 MW that the Electricity Generation Companies (Gencos) produced, the TCN wheeled 2,817.05 MW to the Electricity Distribution Companies (Discos), leaving 63.67MW stranded in transmission.

    The electricity market, however, reached a peak of 3,114.60MW from the 2,893.7MW recorded last Sunday, showing an increase of 220.9MW.

    The Group Executive Director, Gas and Power, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. David Ige, explained that the loss of 400 million standard cubic feet per day (mscf/f) of gas and reduction in water level at the hydro plants was responsible for the decline in power supply.

    According to him, some major pipelines were out of operation because they were vandalised as generation from Shiroro hydropower plant dropped to about 300MW due to inadequate water level.

    Ige assured that once the water level hits about one billion cubic feet a day (bscf/d), the electricity market would record a significant improvement.

    The NNPC chief was quoted as saying: “At the moment, gas supply to power stations is about one billion cubic feet a day (bscf/d). Before the end of this year, we expect to see a significant increase as well. Cumulatively in the country, we are producing about two billion cubic feet of gas per day. Some of the gas we produce are available, but is probably stranded because some of the plants are not ready.

    For example, we have got gas at Gbarian-Ubie power plant, commissioned shortly. We have gas at Omoku, which is awaiting the power plant. We have gas at Egbema power plant. When you bring all these volumes together, we have close to two billion cubic feet per day.”

    But, the management of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company yesterday explained the reason for the loss of electricity supply to some parts of its franchise area, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    In a statement, the firm said the loss of power supply was as a result of the sharp drop in the quantum of power made available to it by the System Operator, which it said was attributable to a (partial) system collapse.

    The company, however, said all concerned players in electricity supply industry, especially the generation and transmission companies, were already working on the system with a view to restoring supply as quickly as possible.

    Pledging that it would immediately distribute the load allocated to it by the System Operator, the management appealed for the understanding of its customers.