No fewer than 97 million out of 175 million Nigerians have no access to grid electricity. The remaining 78 million people who are connected to the grid face substantial power interruptions, the Energy Savers Nigeria, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) has said.
In a paper titled: “The Nigerian Power Sector, A Performance Appraisal under the Buhari Administration” Moses Nasamu, a member of Board of Trustees of Energy Savers Nigeria, said about 56 per cent of the population are connected to the grid, while 44 per cent are not.
He said an estimated 41 per cent of Nigerian businesses generate their own power supply to augment supply from the grid, in line with the recent World Bank report on electricity situations in Nigeria, adding that the problem was caused by poor generation and distribution system and other systemic issues in the sector.
It said Nigeria lags behind other developing nations in terms of grid- based electricity consumption with 126 kilowatts hour(kwh) per capita, stressing that electricity consumption is expected to be five times higher than what it is today in Nigeria, if we consider the country’s Gross Domestic Product( GDP) alongside other countries globally.
The paper said 25 per cent of Nigeria’s 12, 522 megawatts (Mw) of electricity installed reach the end user. “Widespread inefficiency means that only 3, 879Mw of this capacity is operational, with 3,600Mw transmitted and 3,100 distributed. Most of the shortfalls, which were about 5,381Mw, is capacity that is unavailable due to obsolete equipment and poor maintenance or due to ongoing maintenance and repair activities at existing power plants. Also, about 3,262Mw of electricity is non-operational primarily due to gas, water, high frequency, and transmission line constraints.”
According to the paper, the sector has recorded some operational improvements, mainly driven by increased availability of gas since May 29th, 2015, when the Buhari/Osinbajo led government started.
The paper stated that in August 2015, Nigeria hits historical highs as both peak generation and total energy generated across the system stood at 4,811Mw and 4,213 megawatts hour (mwh) respectively. It said transmission losses fell by 10 per cent between June and August 2015, compared to the first four months of the year.
“Nigerians would recall that at the commencement of Buhari/Osinbajo’s administration in May this year, the sector was plagued with challenges, which included under-utilisation of generating plants partly due to insufficient gas availability occasioned by frequent vandalism of gas distribution assets, inadequate transmission infrastructure, high distribution losses, liquidity problem, among others,” the group added.
They said electricity generation and distribution has improved relatively, despite the fact that the problems still exist in the sector. “The Buhari government has helped in restoring confidence in the sector through its decision to fast-track execution of the first set of World Bank partial risk guarantees, and granting of sovereign immunity waiver which aimed at increasing the rate of growth of the first tranche of project-financed Independent Power Projects (IPPs) and the interim execution of the contracts undertaken by the management of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
On solution, the group urged the successor distribution companies to improve on their revenues in order to enable them fund what they described as ‘Wholesale Obligations,’ cater for their operating expenditure requirements, invest in new and modern capacity, and ensure cost- effective tariff is provided for the teeming consumers of electricity in Nigeria. They said when these measures are well implemented, power supply would improve and industrial activities will improve also.
