•NIPP Transmission Station inaugurated
MINISTER of power, Prof Chinedu Nebo has directed the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to create incentives, such as tax holidays and cost-reflective tariff, among others, to woo investors to build embedded power generation plants to boost supply.
He spoke in Lagos after inaugurating the Niger Delta Power Holding Company’s 330/132/33kv transmission substation, 2x300MVA on 330/33kv and 2x60MVA on 132/33kv facilities built under the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP).
Nebo, who represented Vice President Namadi Sambo, said the adoption of embedded power generation is key to solving the nation’s power problems because it is easier to build embedded power plants and get them connected to the national grid.
He said the government has put in place a policy that will ensure the implementation of embedded type of power generation.
He said: “Embedded generation is the fastest way to bring light to Nigerians. We have policies that give that direction. What we are working on now is to incentivise the investors because it is much easier to and much more proficient to do 10 different 20 megawatts (MW) power stations than to do one 200MW power station.
“Building a 200MW power station will take you three-to five years but you can deploy these other ones within a year. So embedded generation is the key and NERC has been directed to ensure that whatever needs to be done by the regulatory agency to make sure that people are incentivised to do embedded generation.”
He continued: “The problem that we have always is lack of transmission infrastructure. There is so much congestion in the Lagos line, so there is need for expansion, making available much larger transmission capacity so that current and voltage coming into Lagos will always be stable and reliable. One major significant solution is this one transmission substation. It gives relief to Ikeja West substation and makes it easier for power to get around in very good quality and reliable form.”
He noted that about 6,000 megawatts (MW) of power can be generated if gas is available but the challenge is the activities of vandals, adding that the only way to stem vandalism is by digitising the entire gas and oil pipelines, which requires a huge sum of money.
He added: “The fact is that quite recently, there has been contract for the monitoring of the pipelines but you know that vandalism in my own opinion, especially with regard to gas pipeline is pure sabotage. So, no matter what you do to stop it, people will find ways of making it difficult for the power that is available in Nigeria to be distributed to Nigerians. These are very unpatriotic people. One way and that is extremely expensive and Mr. President is committed to that is by digitising the entire gas and oil pipeline and you can do this by integrating fibrotic cabling throughout. You know we are talking of thousands of kilometres of pipelines and the cost is quite prohibitive. But unless that is done, we will still be at the mercy of these vandals. For instance, we can generate between 5000MW and 6000MW of power if the gas is available. But when the gas pipelines are shut down on a regular basis, there is no way we can get there. We cannot establish if the pipeline vandalism is political or economic but all we know is that it is pure sabotage. But the fact is that some people have been arrested, prosecuted and convicted and yet it continues just like armed robbery.”
