The Nation Newspaper

Tag: power supply

  • Power Supply: Quiet improvements?

    You know that power supply has improved in Nigeria when your freezer gets frozen more often and you don’t hear the shouts of ‘Up NEPA!’ in your neighbourhood too frequently. Plus the fact that you don’t hear Nigerians complaining bitterly at every turn anymore.

    There has indeed been a quietening down of gripping and whimpering about power outage in the last few weeks – the newspapers, broadcast stations and social media have reported less outage recently. Power supply had always been particularly tough during dry season when water levels in the hydro plants fall. But there seems to be a bit of reprieve this time.

    We guess we will have to watch for a while longer to determine whether the BRF magic is beginning to unfurl or we are merely enjoying some placebo effect.

  • Minister laments poor power supply to Abuja

    Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Malam Muhammad Bello has called for improvement in the volume of electricity supplied to Abuja from the national grid to effectively power critical infrastructure in the nation’s capital.

    Bello made the call while receiving the new Managing Director, of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) who led the company’s management team to the Minister’s office on a courtesy call.

    The minister, who stated that the 11 percent electricity allocated from the national grid to the FCT and other neighboring states covered by the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) is grossly inadequate, called on the TCN to allocate more power to the Abuja Distribution Company with specific instruction that the extra power should be dedicated to the Territory.

    He said, “Powering the city’s critical infrastructure like the streetlights, the hospitals, water treatment plants and the entire waste management value chain, especially the liquid waste management has been a big challenge with epileptic power supply. We have been faced with a number of options, some which include just going off grid. But we realize that going off grid, the immediate solution will be using fossil fuels, putting generators all over the city and of course that affects the environment critically”.

    The Minister continued, “Really, I want you to look at some short term solutions. We need power in Abuja, not just to make the city look beautiful but even for the security of the city. I’m sure when you go round the city at night, the infrastructure is there. We have put street lights in most of the major streets, but simply no power and we wouldn’t want to use generators in multiple locations.”

    In a statement issued by the Deputy Director / Chief Press Secretary, Muhammad Sule, the minister explained that the FCT’s geometric expansion has exceeded all plans and expectations; saying, “it is very clear even from our data and your records that the way in which the city has been expanding within the last two decades, we are talking of an area with a population running into six million already which is overstretched”.

    The Minister who recalled that a special arrangement around the Katampe area which existed some years back took care of power supply to the FCT, called for a return of such projects to tackle the problem of power shortages in the capital city.

    The Minister noted that in the alternative, “We could also identify a system where you can run the streetlights directly from your facility and we are willing to pay, so that that can be looked at as a priority project, independent of the distribution company because it’s priority for us. The seat of power of the country is in Abuja with the President, National Assembly, the highest courts in the land as well as the diplomatic community are all here. This is the centre of Nigeria. We cannot afford to leave Abuja to be dark at night”.

    He tasked TCN to look at specific areas in the Federal Capital City like the Central Business District, the Three Arms Zones, the hospitals and the security zones; emphasising, “I don’t know what the legal implication will be but you could look at it under national security to find ways to solve that”.

    Bello revealed that recently the FCT Administration released the sum of N500 million to the AEDC being part payment of its bills; stressing that FCTA has been very punctual in paying its electricity bills since he assumed office.

    Bello stressed that the FCT Administration believes that power is a critical social infrastructure that every government has to support and assured them of his support and cooperation.

    The Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, Mr. Usman Gur Mohammed appreciated the warn reception of the Minister.

    He promised that TCN in collaboration with the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) will look into the request for more allocation of power to the Abuja zone; saying that his company is presently working on the possibility of bringing in additional power lines through Lafia, Nasarawa State into Abuja.

    The Managing Director disclosed that currently TCN transmits power into the FCT through Gwagwaglada and Suleja axis but would make it a tripod arrangement with Lafia axis being added.

     

  • Power supply gets N701b boost

    Power supply gets N701b boost

    •Purchase guarantee for GenCos

    Power supply, which stands at 4,000 megawatts, is set for a major boost.

    The Federal Executive Council (FEC) yesterday approved N701 billion Power Assurance Guarantee for the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET)—to ensure a better supply of gas to the power plants. This will in turn improve power supply.

    One of the major problems of the sector has been the lack of gas for power plants and the complaints about access to funding by the Generating Companies.

    Minister of Power, Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola announced  the FEC approval after yesterday’s meeting chaired by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

    With him at the briefing were Minister of Information Lai Mohammed and Minister of Agriculture Audu Ogbeh.

    Fashola said the  Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) facility will guarantee payment for the evacuation of power produced by Generating Companies (GenCos) for the national grid.

    It will be drawn monthly to tackle the GenCos liquidity challenges.

    NBET will pay GenCos, which have been unable to pay their gas suppliers,  in arrears of electricity generated as a deliberate step to boost their confidence and that of intending investors in the sector.

    Fashola said: “You will recall that a few weeks back we announced the approval of council for early works for the second Niger Bridge. That bridge at some time was part of a PPP initiative. You will also recall that at the same time, some private agreements were signed to build the Lagos-Ibadan express way.

    “The first memo is to brief council on the PPP status of those infrastructure projects and present options to government, which was essentially that where those PPPs are having problems, government must lead and finance the infrastructure while continuing to engage the private sector. Government remains committed to ‎having private participation in infrastructure renewal.

    “But government, as a matter of strategy; thinks that it can continue until financial closures, agreements and all of that are put in place when PPPs become ready and viable to help deliver. So, it was a strategy memorandum, the conclusion essentially which is that government is committed to doing short financing as much as possible and encouraging PPP as much as possible.

    “The second memorandum is in another area of critical importance, which is power‎. Part of the challenges there were addressed in the memo that was presented to Council to solve some of the liquidity problems, especially as it relates to NBET.

    “NBET as you know, is the government’s own company, that is the Bulk ‎Trader Electricity which buys power from the GenCos. The liquidity problems that have characterized the market have affected NBET’s ability to deliver on its PPP obligations through the GenCos.

    “So, going forward, in order to strengthen NBET, CBN is proving a payment assurance guarantee for any energy produced by any GenCos, so that the Gencos can pay their gas suppliers when they get paid. So that the hydros can continue to operate.

    “What we seek to achieve here is to bring some stability to the production side of the power value chain and also give confidence to investors who want to come in, who are concerned about how to recover their money. Payment assurance and also people who are planning to invest in the gas sector, which is being championed by the Ministry of Petroleum, also are saying the same thing in terms of payment for gas produced.

    “So, the approval of Council was to provide this guarantee for NBET, which is a 100 per cent government owned company to pay on a monthly basis its obligations for energy actually produced on to the grid to the GenCos that are its customers,” he said.

    Fashola said the government was expanding transmission capacity regularly because it wanted to generate more power.

    He said: “I have been here to announce to you transmission projects that have been approved by council and over the last one year plus the transmission capacity has grown to almost 7,000 from 5,000 and is continuing to grow with every project.

    “So, it is not the problem of taking power; it is actually a problem of getting power from generation. If you recall just about a few weeks ago, you were reporting that power supply had dropped to a little over 2000mw. It’s back now at over 4000mw.

    “We have solved the transmission problem in Ikot Ekpene largely, to evacuate over a thousand. But the gas suppliers were being owed so they were not supplying gas for the power producers.

    “As to the quantum of the guarantee, it is for two years from January this year right through to December 2018. It is capped at a maximum of N701 billion but it is to be drawn monthly. It is possible it may not reach that. But we are projected on the total cost that NBET will likely to pay. And that is why it is for power generated onto the grid only.

    “So, if the power generated does not meet that cost, we don’t pay for it. It is paid in arrears at the end of the month not in advance. So, it is for actually what gets onto the grid. And this is part of the reforms that we have briefed you about that we were planning to undertake.”

    Fashola said he briefed the cabinet on the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) status of the Second Niger Bridge and Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

    Ogbeh said the FEC approved N263 million for three research institutions to produce gum arabic seedlings for farmers and for export.

    He said Nigeria earned as much as $43 million from export of gum arabic last year, and that more will be earned with increased production, more so as the commodity is in high demand in 17 countries.

  • Ambode targets 3000mw 24-hr power generation for Lagos

    Ambode targets 3000mw 24-hr power generation for Lagos

    Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode on Wednesday said the quest by the country to achieve energy security can no longer be left for the Federal Government to address alone, just as he revealed plans by the State to attain 24-hour power supply through generation of 3000megawatts of electricity by 2022.

    Speaking at Lagos House in Ikeja after receiving the report of the Embedded Power Technical Committee constituted by the State Government with representatives from the public and private sector, Governor Ambode said while the Federal Government continues in its efforts to resolve the power crisis, the sustainable solution going forward would be the pulling together of commitment and resources of all stakeholders in the power value chain.

    While explaining the rationale behind the embedded power initiative of the State Government, Governor Ambode said the major bane of the power situation in the country has always been with transmission, adding that the initiative was designed to permanently resolve power crisis in the State and by extension in the country.

    He said: “The reason why we embarked on this initiative is that we believe strongly that if the power problem is solved in Lagos, it is technically solved in the whole of the country and so because Lagos has more or less tested a solution that works, we can scale this up and also address it on a national scale.

    “The problem of power in Nigeria is the problem of transmission and that is the truth. Yes, we have generating companies and we have distributing companies and they say power is in the hands of the private sector but we know technically that that is not totally true.

    “We also know that transmission is hundred per cent owned by government but we have tested here in Lagos and we have been able to provide 48 kilowatts of power without transmitting it which means that we generate and then distribute.

    “So, if that works for 48 kilowatts, can we put Lagos into clusters and actually use embedded power initiative to drive the business of Lagos? That is what this initiative is all about and I want to thank all the stakeholders for submitting their business template into what government sees as the right step to take so that we can join hands together to say in the next two to five years, we can actually power Lagos and then grow our GDP.”

    Governor Ambode said the target of the State Government is to generate up to 3,000MW of power through accelerated deployment of various embedded power plants in strategic locations in the State within three to five years.

    Out of the 3000MW, the Governor said 350MW would be delivered by Q1 2018, additional 850MW by Q4 2018, and the balance of 1,800MW not later Q3 2022, while the State Government will support the Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) to be signed between the Distribution Companies and the embedded power providers, to enhance bankability of the projects.

    He said the embedded power will be distributed off-grid within Lagos State through the network of Eko and Ikeja Distribution Companies, while the State Government will support the Distribution Companies in upgrading their distribution infrastructure and installation of smart prepaid meters in the areas where embedded power is deployed.

    Other areas of collaboration, according to the Governor, would include support for collection, appropriate legislation and enforcement of power theft laws.
    Besides, Governor Ambode said his administration will collaborate with operators of oil blocks in the Lagos area to accelerate the extraction of gas feedstocks for power generation, adding that alternative sources of fuel would be explored to sustain uninterrupted power supply in the medium to long term, including partnerships on investments in gas pipeline infrastructure through the State’s owned oil and gas Corporation – Ibile Oil and Gas.

    While recalling the success of the Light Up Lagos Project with installation of over 47,000 poles of street lights, and connection of about 67 communities in the Ibeju Lekki axis to national grid after about six years off grid under the rural electrification project, Governor Ambode said another 32 communities in Badagry which have not had access to electricity for over sixteen years would be connected to the grid within the next 21 days.

    Responding on behalf of Distribution Companies (DISCOS), Chairman of Eko Distribution Company, Mr. Charles Momoh commended Governor Ambode for the embedded power initiative, saying it was the best thing that has happened to Lagos State in recent times.

    He also expressed the confidence of DISCOS in the ability of the Governor to see to the success of the initiative.

    Earlier in his remarks, the Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Mr. Wale Oluwo, said he was confident that the implementation of the report holistically would address electricity problem in the state.

     

     

  • 10 communities appeal to Nasarawa Govt. for power supply

     Ten communities in Lafia North Development Area of Nasarawa State on Friday appealed to the government to provide them with electricity to boost their socio-economic activities.

    Mr Agule Christopher, the Spokesman for the communities, made the appeal when members of the communities paid a courtesy visit to Alhaji Ibrahim Alkali, a member representing Lafia North Constituency at the State House of Assembly.

    Christopher listed the 10 communities to include Ashige, Ashangwa,Zagyo, Sabon Gidan, kirife, Gidan mai Akuya, Agyaragu Kwaro,Kurmin gogo,Yelwa and Kantsakuwa.

    He said that the provision of electricity would discourage rural-urban migration, reduce crime and improve the standard of living of the people.

    “We are here to express our happiness to you for equal and quality representation at the state house of assembly.

    “And we will continue to be loyal and supportive to you and the State Government to enable you succeed.

    “We also appeal to you look in to our problem, especially to step down electricity from Adogi community to our communities in order to reduce our suffering and better our standard of living.

    “The importance of provision of infrastructural facilities like electricity in any community cannot be over-emphasised, apart from bringing speedy development, it reduces youth restiveness and poverty.

    “Also the provision of power supply will also reduce crime, discourages rural-urban migration as well as improve standard of living of the people,’’ he said.

    Christopher said the absence of electricity in their communities had hindered socio-economic growth and standard of living.

    He said the commitments of the communities to continue to support the state government policies and programmes in order to enjoy dividend of democracy for the overall development.

    Earlier, Alkali (PDP, Lafia North) and the Minority Leader of the House, assured the communities that he would channel their complaints to the appropriate authority for necessary action.

    “I will continue to embark on projects and programmes that have direct bearing on your lives and the people of the state’’, he said.

    He urged members of the communities to continue to be law abiding, respect constituted authorities and to live in peace irrespective of their ethnic, religion and political affiliation.

  • EKO Disco assures customers of improved electricity supply

    The management of Eko Electricity Distribution Company Plc (EKEDC) has assured its customers of improved power supply.

    The company said it was committed to improved electricity supply based on what it received from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

    Mr Oladele Amoda, the Chief Executive Officer, gave the assurance at a town hall meeting with some customers under the Mushin axis in Lagos on Friday.

    Amoda, who was represented by Mr Sam Nwaire, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of EKEDC, appealed to customers to exercise patience over the current instability in electricity supply in the country.

    “We all know what Nigeria is going through today, the challenge is everywhere.

    “I know how you people feel and I want to tell you also that we are not also happy with the power situation but I want to assure you that we are doing all we can, under the law, to improve power supply to our customers,” he said.

    Amoda said that EKEDC was entitled to 11 per cent of power generation from the national grid but presently, it was not getting adequate energy due to ongoing challenges in the power sector.

    According to him, the company has started a special arrangement with the Egbin Power Plant to buy 100megawatts for dedicated customers, without going through the national grid.

    He explained that the arrangement would make those customers to pay a little more, but with guaranteed stable power supply.

    “Very soon, we will be taking 45MW from Paras Energy and we are also in discussion with the Lagos State Government on how we can be buying power from them to supply our customers.

    “Behind the stadium, we want to build another 1x15MVA substation to boost supply in the Surulere axis, with approval from the regulators. We have been to Abuja twice with Hon. Desmond Elliot on this issue,’’ he said.

    When asked if the Credited Advance Payment for Metering Implementation (CAPMI) has failed, he stated that “I do not agree that CAPMI has failed.

    “What happened was that some Discos didn’t actually play according to the rules.

    “The rule was that, whatever the fund the customer is bringing, you must be transparent over it, to the extent that you give the fund back from the day the person started taking the image.

    “When the regulator came to us, we showed them evidence to show that the customers actually had the returns on investment.

    “But some Discos did not do that and the regulator felt that their integrity is at stake and they felt that the only way to do it is by working with those who are doing it well.

    “We asked them to go back and put up another plan and it should be their plan, not the regulatory plan and that was how we got into what we are doing now.

    “So as we speak, we believe CAPMI is a success and it was able to bring in nothing less than 86,000 meters into our network.

    “ If we are allowed to market that kind of project, I think within the next three years, we will be doing better with our metering plan,’’ he said.

    Nwaire said that over 138 faulty transformers had been replaced by the company to boost power supply to customers within its network.

    He said that the equipment, which cost over N700 million, had been installed in  different locations to effectively boost supply to customers.

    He lauded the company’s directors who had gone to source the funds to acquire the equipment, in the interest of the network’s teeming customers.

    “We have embarked on massive replacement of faulty transformers within the network; we expect customers to reciprocate this gesture by paying their bills,” he said.

    “We also expect communities that will benefit from the transformers not to see them as public property but as their own, so that they can help safeguard the transformers against vandalism by unscrupulous elements.

    According to the COO, EKEDC had lost over N1 billion in the past three years to various forms of energy theft, as cases of meter bye-pass by customers to avoid payment became very rampant, just as equipment vandalism was on the increase.

  • Why power supply is poor nationwide, by Fashola

    Why power supply is poor nationwide, by Fashola

    Minister of Power Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola yesterday explained why there is poor power supply in the country.

    He spoke to State House reporters after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

     The FEC meeting approved the upward review of the contract for the completion of the Odogunyan  transmission substation in Ikorodu, Lagos.

    The contract, which was awarded in 2009 and abandoned due to lack of funds, was reviewed by N274.3 million to N3.5 billion.

    Fashola said: “You will recall that in previous briefings we told you what the strategy was, incremental power in a short while and that is what we are addressing. Expanding the transmission and improving generation. This approval was to help us complete the Odogunyan  transmission substation in Ikorodu, Lagos and to provide additional transformer capacity at the substation 260 MVA transformers and transmission lines of 132KVA.

    “This will complete the works in that area generally known within the  power industry as Ayobo West. You will recall that we visited the substation at our last meeting, this is an extension of that. The contract had been awarded before now but not completed because it wasn’t paid for. It was awarded in 2009 and should have been completed

    in 18 months which would have been sometimes in May 2011 but because

    of lack of funding which you know the story, nothing happened.

    “That is the approval we got today and of course the cost has been revised as a result of the economic realities so that this can be completed and put to use and this would add to the expansion capacity to the grid, just as what we have done in Kaduna and previous approvals that we have shared with you.

    “The initial contract I think was N3.225 billion or there about, the revision that has been approved is N274.3 million to complete it, so it goes from about N3.2 to N3.5 billion.” he said

    The Minister also gave reasons for the dwindling power supply in the country.

    He said : “We heard there was liquidity problems, gas suppliers haven’t been  fully paid you have back and forth between DisCos and GenCos so those are the issues. Apart from the sabotage that we have had from the Western axis of the Niger Delta, so the Escravos Lagos pipeline is not operational, the Forcados export terminal too has been out of operation.

    “So, if you can’t produce oil, you cant take the gas. The gas is the fuel that the power plants need. You have seen what we have been doing in increasing the capacity in firing transmission but if we don’t have fuel to fire the plants, that is the reason.

    “What then happens on the grid is that once it goes below 3,000 MW, it becomes unstable. It is like in your house when you have surges and your circuit breakers trip to protect the system. So once it falls below a certain threshold you then have those trip offs. There are in a sense almost necessity to protect the entire system, so what then happens is startups, we do black starts from various power plants.”

    Fashola added: “While we were trying to start last week we had a fire in Afam and that

    affected the control room and these are normal engineering accidents that can happen, the mechanical parts can break down, we also had another fire in Kainji. We have tried to repair them over the last weekend while negotiations with the gas companies are ongoing.

    “I have been meeting with the gas suppliers, trying to see how we can pay off some of these debts whilst fix other problems. As I continue to say, it is not technical but financial, vandalism of pipelines is not technical, people are destroying, they are hungry. Until we resolve these behavorial issues, people collect money, are they remitting everything in a manner that is fair, even if it is not enough, some people hold up their own share and they ask themselves why should we continue to supply if we cant get paid because there are bankers and financiers?

    “So we are talking with everybody, trying to resolve it. As at yesterday we were back to 2900, so we are building up back again and very soon you will see some stability. These are set backs on the road to incremental power but we will overcome them.”

  • Buhari urged on unemployment, power supply

    Buhari urged on unemployment, power supply

    A broadcaster, Prince Adeniyi Adewole Adeyemi, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to tackle unemployment and find a solution to erratic power supply.

    Adeyemi, who is one of the children of Alaafin of Oyo, spoke during a weekly Yoruba radio programme entitled:” Sodamo”, in Ibadan.

    He said it was pertinent to note that the few companies in the country were experiencing financial problem.

    He said most of them had  begun to relocate to other neighbouring countries following power outage.

    “Our leaders import generators which Nigerians buy to stabilise their businesses because of inadequate power supply. The poor power situation of Nigeria has contributed a lot to the nose-dive of the economy because regular power supply is the bedrock of any nation’s economy.

    “They need to see how it is done in developed countries and emulate the method used. Government needs to resuscitate our refineries and railway transport system to improve our failing economy. Before the advent of oil, agriculture used to be the mainstay of the nation’s economy. But when oil was discovered, agriculture was abandoned and it has not been given adequate priority”.

    The ace broadcaster enjoyined Nigeria leaders to focus more on investing in agriculture in other to reduce unemployment and revitalise the economy.

     

  • West African countries move to steady power supply

    West African countries move to steady power supply

    Representatives of West African countries will next week converge on Lagos for a workable blueprint to guarantee steady power supply in Nigeria and other West African countries.

    Chief Executive Officer of Flintpostures, Oti Ukpai stated this yesterday at a Roundtable with journalists to announce the 2nd West Africa Power Summit (WAPS) in Lagos.

    The theme of the summit is “Developing sustainable power generation, transmission and distribution networks for West Africa’’.

    Ukpai said the summit would bring together experts and stakeholders in the power sector from Ghana, Republic of Benin, Nigeria and other West African countries.

    He stated that speakers and discussants were selected to deliberate on the urgent need for the region to focus on rural electrification and alternative and renewable energy sources.

    He expressed optimism that the provision and access to steady power supply would not only promote socioeconomic development, but would easily link the region with the rest of the world.

    The Flintpostures chief said the summit was jointly being organised by Power for All, Council for Renewable Energy, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and other energy organisations.

     

     

  • Power supply now 3,061Mw

    Power supply now 3,061Mw

    The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) yesterday sent out 3,061megawatts (Mw) of electricity generated by the electricity generation companies to the 11 distribution companies (DisCos).

    The Nigerian Electricity System Operator (SO) made this known on its website yesterday .

    According to its operational report for August 30, the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), the power sector on August 29, hit a peak generation of 3,556.5MW and lowest peak generation of 2,423.8MW.

    The TCN on the same day wheeled 2,927Mw to the DisCos . NESI said the power sector recorded highest system frequency of 51.58Hz, lowest system frequency of 49.12Hz,  highest voltage recorded was 372KV, while lowest voltage recorded on the same day was 300KV.

    The TCN had on August 28 sent 2,766MB to the distribution companies. The lowest energy generation on the day under review was 2,520MW, while highest generation was 3,502MW.