The Nation Newspaper

Tag: POWER

  • Power sector loses 3,880MW to gas constraints owing to attacks

    Power sector loses 3,880MW to gas constraints owing to attacks

    The Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) has lost 3,880Mega Watts (MW) to gas constraint, it was learnt yesterday.

    The Nigerian Electricity System Operator (SO) yesterday said that it sent out 57,256.89 Mega Watts per Hour (MWH) which was also 2,385.70MW .

    In its system performance posted on its website, the SO noted that the lowest generation from the Electricity Generation Companies (GENCOs) was 2,251.80MW, while the peak generation was 2,797.60MW.

    The loss of gas following the attack on the Escravos tank farm main electricity feed pipeline  reduced gas supply from  2,385.70MW on Wednesday  to 2,351MW yesterday.

    Prior to the attack, the NESI had already posted on its daily report of Wednesday that the power sector lost 3,880MWs to gas constraint.

    It said in its daily summary that “the reported gas constraint was 3,880MW,” adding that it also recorded 380MW water management constraint .

    The NESI noted that it recorded  105MW line constraint and “the power sector lost the estimated equivalent of N2, 095, 000, 00 on May 25 2016 due to constraint.”

    The sector had maintained an average of about 4,000MW till February when the vandals started attacking  the gas pipelines .

    According to a source who disclosed the sector performance to our correspondent, the data has been very dismal, declining an average of about 2,000MW in May.

    She said: “We were averaging 4,000 in January and it got down by half in four months and I can directly link that crash with vandalism.”

    The source further said:”Right now ,our transmission capacity is very low and we are talking about 3,000MW to 4,000MW. At peak, what we generate and send out successfully is 5,000MW. So at a best case scenario, it is 5,000MW but right now there is no gas. “

    The Nation learnt that only 30 per cent of the power produced is being paid for.

    The source lamented that “there is no enough money to pay for even the small power we are using.

    Gas producers are saying they will give gas to someone who could pay for it and not to those owing us 70 per cent.”

  • Firm spends N3.6b on power

    ASHAKA Cement Plc spent N3.606 billion on power generation in one year,  according to its 2015 financial year report.

    The amount represented 20.71 per cent of its total revenue in the year under review and accounting for 30 per cent of its total cost of sales.

    The company, in its 2015 Annual Report, presented to shareholders at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Abuja, during the week, said the amount spent on power in 2015 was 33.16 per cent higher than the N2.708b spent in the same capacity in 2014.

    Ashaka Cement Plc declared a revenue of N17.415b in the year under review, dropping by 17.6 per cent from N21.134b in 2014; its profit before tax also dipped by 38.9 per cent from N5.25b in 2014 to N3.209b in 2015, while profit for the year stood at N2.765b, dropping by 39.5 per cent from N4.567b in 2014.

    The company also recorded total comprehensive income for the year of N2.761b, representing a decline of 45.2 per cent from N5.04b in 2014, while it cost of sales dropped to N12.02b from N12.98b in 2014.

    Giving a breakdown of its cost of sales, the company said N1.941b was spent on power, compared to N1.32b in 2014; N263.309 million was spent on coal as against N352.988b in 2014; while diesel (Automotive Gasoline Oil) for its plants and generators among others, gulped N1.402b, compared to N1.031b in 2014.

    To reduce the high cost of power generation, the Chairman, Board of Directors, Ashaka Cement Plc, Mr. Suleiman Yahyah, said the company had invested in power generation and that within the next 18 to 24 months, the power plants would be complete and would start supplying electricity to its facilities.

  • ‘Way out of power crisis’

    To tackle the problem of incessant power failure, an arm of Contec Global Group, Contec Power Systems, has introduced some power products such as inverters, UPS, batteries and solar power goods into the market.

    The Managing Director, Mr. Srinivas Ppilla, said it was imperative and cost-effective for Nigerians, especially those at the grassroots, to buy the products to enjoy their lives, adding that the products are unique in the industry.

    He said: “People in Nigeria are going through a challenging situation in terms of power crisis, the difficulty in managing their power supply and energy needs for residence and corporate requirements, thus affecting the common man and the corporate  bodies by and large. The costs associated with buying diesel or petrol to power your needs is increasing day by day, and affecting the economy of the country too.

    “Not only that, the constant use of diesel generators has affected the air increasing health-related problems due to pollution. It is time to change to a highly reliable source and reduce your recurring expenses on fuel bills. The solution is to reduce the dependency on the public power supply and generators by adapting to solar power and inverters. By installing solar panels and inverters, the dependency on the generators and fluctuating power supply is reduced. Even the air we breathe in will be less polluted’’.

    “Contec Power has solutions for both large corporate and residences. It aims at providing cost-effective power back up and renewable energy solutions to Nigerians and help them to make their lives more comfortable.”

    Also, the firm’s Head of Service, Mr Anil Pawar said: ‘’Contec Power is a differentor in power back solutions industry by offering high quality products backed by 24/7 after-sales services’’, lasts longer and if well-maintained, could last 25 years. Besides, he said the firm offers free site inspectors and one year warranty on its products.

  • Eko DisCo begins power rationing in VI, Ikoyi, others

    Eko Electricity Distribution Company has begun power rationing in Lekki, Ikoyi, Victoria Island (VI) and some parts of Ajah,  the firm has said.

    The General Manager, Corporate Communications, Idemudia Godwin Sule, said the rationing started last week and would last one month.

    The rationing is to enable the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) upgrade both Line 1 and Line 2 of Ajah-Alagbon transmission line from 132kv to 330kv.

    He said: “During the upgrade operation, which will last between three and four weeks, the Lekki transmission injection sub-station from which most of the areas to be affected by the power rationing are fed, would be completely shut down.

    “But to ensure that the areas are not completely out of supply for the duration of the upgrade operation, alternative power supply arrangement would be made through back-feeding operation to the areas from Alagbon transmission injection sub-station via Ijora.”

    While appealing to customers to show understanding and bear with the situation during the period of the  exercise, Idemudia stated that all efforts would be made to ensure equitable distribution of available power to all customers.

  • US firm partners UNILORIN on power

    A New York-based company, Arrow Capital LCC, is partnering with the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) to generate 500 megawatts of solar energy in Nigeria.

    The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Brian Travis, said while signing a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with authorities of the university at the weekend that the project would cost the firm about N600 billion.

    Travis added that the project would be sited on the UNILORIN campus, saying “University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) is an ideal location for a solar power. The backbone of the electricity distributions of Nigeria runs through this line.

    “They run through Egbin thermal power station in Lagos up to Shiroro Dam in Niger State. So it is a great honour and location for us.

    “Interestingly, when President Muhammadu Buhari came to the United States last year, he announced the country’s commitment to solar power and President Barack Obama announced that jobs from the solar industry are growing in the country.”

    Travis said the project, expected to be completed in five months, would supply 10 per cent of the country’s power needs.

    “It is going to supply 10 percent of power to Nigeria; we have three major grids and with significant manpower, we will extend to Lagos, Kano and other parts of the country,” he said.

    On his part, the UNILORIN Vice Chancellor, Prof Abdulganiyu Ambali, said the project would meet the institution’s power and training needs.

    He said: “The total consumption of the UNILORIN is four megawatts and they are going to generate 500 megawatts.  They have made all arrangement to sell the rest to the Federal Government.

    “We at the UNILORIN see it as an opportunity to contribute to the efforts of the federal government in terms of power generation and distribution.

    “Again, we are looking at the benefits the university will derive from the whole exercise. This includes, most importantly, the constant power supply to our university.  We cannot over emphasise the need for that because we have a lot of departments that depend on constant power supply; especially our biomedical research.

    “This also, will go a long way in encouraging our own graduate students in their research to generate data that will be acceptable and comparable to other people around the world.

    “The company intends to build a solar panel assembly plant that will afford our engineering students to get state-of-the-art training and skills of producing solar panels.

    “It will also afford our entrepreneurship centre the opportunity of training the middle level manpower that will be needed to assemble and maintain such facilities when made available to the general public.

    “The positive effects that the project will have on Kwara state, on Nigeria as a whole are enormous and we look forward to the fruitful completion of the project. They intend to start immediately after the signing the MoA and it is our target that come October this year, the project will be part of what UNILORIN will commission through the various guests that will be here.”

     

  • Power of National Assembly to scrap a state

    In its Tuesday, May 3, edition, on pages 43 and 48, The Guardian carried the contents of an interview it granted to Kemi Balogun, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), in which interview he wrongly asseverated that the National Assembly could easily set at naught, to use his language, scrap, any of the federating units (states, like Ekiti, for instance) as currently constituted if it is able to mobilize two-thirds of its members to do so. According to him, “they (the States) have no option because they are the creation of the centre….” Continuing, he said, “The centre that created them can swallow up the states here. An Act of the National Assembly can scrap them…If 2/3 of national assembly elects to scrap a state, it is scrapped.”

    Two-thirds of the National Assembly? That is, about 312 national parliamentarians can scrap a state, a federating unit?

    I beg to disagree, with respect.

    Apparent in the foregoing statements of the learned Senior Advocate is a certain sad misconstruction of the constitutional provisions on the limits of the powers of the National Assembly. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), the fons et origo of the Nigerian legal system, provides in its section 2 subsection (1) that “Nigeria is one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign state to be known as the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” Subsection (2) thereof forcefully reinforces that stipulation by announcing that “Nigeria shall be a Federation consisting of States and a Federal Capital Territory.” For good measure, section 3 (1) thereof bolsters up subsection (2) when it expressly delineates the number of states in the federation. So, for the National Assembly to ever think of doing something about scrapping a state (a federating component), it has to amend section 3 (1) and the first column of Part 1 of the First Schedule to the 1999 Constitution (as amended) in line with the restrictive provisions of section 9 (1) (2) thereof.

    Where that gamble ever succeeds, it must be noted that in a federation, each of the constituent units has homologous powers, never mind that the Nigerian federating units were the creation of decrees. The learned Senior Advocate ought to know that if the military decreed any matter into being, such a matter acquired the irrefrangible and inviolate sanctity of continuance until set aside by another decree. Not so easy in a democratic dispensation! A federating unit created by a decree immediately acquired a coordinate status with the central authority.

    Political pundits, worldwide, agree that a federation is characterized by a union of partially self-governing states (as in Nigeria) or cantons (as in Switzerland) or regions (as in Australia) or Bundeslander (as in Germany and Austria) under a central government. In a federation, the self-governing status of the components, as well as the division of power between them and the central (federal) government, is typically constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision of either party, the states or the federal political body.

    According Sir Kenneth C. Wheare, former Rector of Exeter College, Gladstone, and Professor of Government and Public Administration, University of Oxford, and author of “Federal Government”, “The federal principle requires that the general and regional governments of a country shall be independent each of the other within its sphere, (and) shall not be subordinate one to the another but co-ordinate with each other….” The Constitution of Nigeria says that Nigeria, by reason of its being a disparate congeries of ethnic nationalities, is a federation. So, whether the practice of federalism in Nigeria by over-ambitious Nigerian rulers dovetails into that entrenched constitutional provision or not is immaterial. The centre cannot legislatively wish away one of the component parts of the federation. The National Assembly cannot even remove a state governor or his deputy let alone scrap the state over which they preside. The proviso to section 11 (4) of the Constitution warns the National Assembly:

    “Provided that nothing in this section shall be construed as conferring on the National Assembly power to remove the Governor or the Deputy of the State from office.”

    The powers of the National Assembly over the states are limited to those spelt out in section 11 (3) (4) of the constitution and to those adumbrated on the Exclusive Legislative List, which are outside the jurisdiction of State Houses of Assembly. Even where the National Assembly, under section 11 (3) of the constitution, can legislate on behalf of any State House of Assembly during a period of war involving Nigeria, the extension of such legislative powers terminates with the end of the war. Prof. K.C. Wheare, in his “Federal Government”, warns that “this extension of authority cannot be justified in time of peace, of course, and it is natural that after a war the limits of the general government’s authority will recede.”

    Section 9 of the 1999 Constitution provides that, “The National Assembly may, SUBJECT to the provisions of this section (i.e. subsections (3) and (4) thereof), alter ANY OF THE PROVISIONS OF THIS CONSTITUTION” (emphasis added). The scrapping of a state (a federating unit) is NOT one of the provisions of the 1999 Constitution, which the National Assembly has powers to alter, neither is such a power located in either the 68-item Exclusive Legislative List nor in the 30-item Concurrent Legislative List.

    I dare say, with the profoundest respect, that it becomes clear that the Senior Advocate of Nigeria laboured under some insuperable confusion and a penumbra of irrationality when he blurted out that: “Majority of them (i.e. of the states) were created by decrees. We do not have decrees again. What we have now is the National Assembly,” suggesting that the National Assembly has more powers than the military authorities ever paraded! He knows or should know that the military and its decrees, unrestricted by any rule, written or otherwise, could and did promulgate, by military fiats, laws which the National Assembly, hedged about by restrictive constitutional provisions, cannot venture to enact?

    Today, the powers given to the National Assembly by the Exclusive and even Concurrent Legislative Lists of the 1999 Constitution are so unwieldy, so enormous, they make the national legislature hard put to it to find its way in the labyrinth of law making. Mr. Kemi Balogun, SAN, should not add more to the functions of the National Assembly. Instead, he should lend his influential voice, as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, to the strident calls for devolution of powers from the centre to the federating units, and for fiscal federalism. For the scrapping of a federating unit or the merger of two or more such units, a plebiscite or referendum within that unit or those units, is a desideratum devoutly to be wished, a sine qua non, a condition precedent that cannot be pretermitted.

  • BEDC begins clampdown on power thieves

    The Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) promised to begin prosecution of anyone caught stealing power from its network.

    It said 50 per cent of the power generated in Nigeria was stolen through bye-passing of meters and illegal connection.

    Its Managing Director, Mrs. Funke Osibodu, who stated this during an interactive session with reporters in Benin  said the penalty for power theft is great.

    She said a church in Benin City that was supposed to be preaching morals was caught stealing power.

    She said the aim of the clampdown on power thieves was to ensure that those paying electricity bills regularly get adequate power supply.

    On the planned protest by civil societies from four states over high electricity billing,  the BEDC chief said the groups were misleading Nigerians to do the wrong thing by bye-passing meters.

  • ‘Nigeria needs energy mix to fix power crisis’

    Nigeria requires a combination of on-grid and off-grid sources of energy to meet the needs of its over 170 million population, the Chairman, Energy Institute, Osten Olorunsola has said.

    Olorunsola, who was a former Director of Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), said the country would get out if its worsening power problems, if it  adopts and implements various energy sources at its disposal.

    He said energy mix was the most viable option of proffering solution to electricity problems in Nigeria, since the country has tried a single method of generating electricity without much success.

    At the Continuing Professional Development(CPD) Programme organised by the Energy Institute (EI) in Lagos, Olorunsola said to improve the skills of workers in the oil and gas sector and related areas, the Federal Government should leverage on energy sources such as coal, solar, gas, hydro, biomass and others for the power sector growth.

    He said: ‘’Energy mix is the way out of the problems, which Nigeria has found itself. We have no choice than to use a combination of different sources of energy to generate the required electricity megawatts (Mw) in the country. The government needs to marry both the renewable energy and traditional energy sources together to attain the goal of providing electricity for all Nigerians.  While solar, coal, and wind are used to generate renewable energy, gas and hydro are used to provide the traditional energy. Other countries have adopted this strategy, and Nigeria should not be an exception.

    “So, today’s programme is about continuing development programme on  energy business. The real problem is that we have a lot of skills gap, so we are basically using EI as a platform to help brush up and sharpen the capabilities of all our engineers or any energy related professional for that matter.

    “It is doesn’t really matter whether the professionals are lawyers or accountants, because we all have something to do about energy. So, it’s about skills, knowledge and good practice, therefore, bringing young people together to sharpen their professionalism and skills are imperative. We have a lot of young people who are engineers, we want to help them to develop.”

    He said the northern part of Nigeria is blessed with solar, while the eastern part has huge coal and gas reserves, stressing that failure of the government to make use of various sources of energy would not augur well for the country.

    “There is even a global initiative that even compels Nigeria to also be looking in the direction of renewable (the Paris meeting), so all those agreements, which it signed on will be monitored from now onward, so we really don’t have a choice. We really need to be thinking about renewable, even companies. Recently, I went to take a loan in the United Kingdom for some projects and they simply told me sorry, we only give loans to renewable projects, so you can see where the world is going, we better do a mix of all the energy fuels,”he said.

    An official of Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, Chinedu Ogwus, also said the seminar was aimed at developing young professionals, especially engineers in the nation’s oil and gas industry and allied sectors.

    He said: “The benefits of being a professional member of a body such as Energy Institute is enormous. They stand to have some post-nominals after their names, have extra recognitions and different benefits that the Institute has. For example, you can register your company in the Energy Institute and use its logo, have access to online libraries, and gain professional membership.”

  • CPC advises Fashola on power firms

    CPC advises Fashola on power firms

    The Consumer Protection Council (CPC) has carried its crusade against consumer abuses to the Minister of Power, Works and Housing,  Babatunde Fashola,  charging him to hold operators in power and housing sectors accountable to their contracts with consumers.

    Its Director-General,  Dupe Atoki, spoke during a visit to the Minister of Works, Housing and Power, Mr Babatunde Fashola in Abuja, stating that despite measures put in place by the electricity industry regulators to ensure effective service delivery, the Council still receives consumer complaints against operators in the sector.

    Atoki said: “Some of these complaints include non-metering of consumers, which results in estimated and arbitrary billing of a huge consumer population; non-supply of infrastructure requirements, such as transformers, electric poles and cables to some business units, thereby forcing consumers to pay for same without reimbursement; and irregular disconnection.

  • Power relief in Plateau, Bauchi, Benue, Gombe

    Power relief in Plateau, Bauchi, Benue, Gombe

    Years of epileptic electricity may be nearing an end as four northern states get pre-paid meters and transformers, reports YUSUFU AMINU IDEGU

    Like everywhere else in the country, constant electricity supply has been hard to achieve for decades in Plateau, Benue, Bauchi and Gombe states, leaving residents with sighs and gasps. Now, that seems about to end. In Jos, the Plateau State capital and headquarters of the zone, no fewer than 130,000 pre-paid meters and 400 transformers were displayed for immediate distribution to the states. There were other electrical appliances there to boost power in the zone.

    It was the launch of electricity  facilities supplied by the Jos Electricity Development Company (JED), an independent power firm. It was an event which raised hopes of improved power supply across the states.

    The meters came in single and three phases.

    The Minister for Housing, Works and Power, Babatunde Fashola was represented at the event by a senior staff of the ministry, Mr. Bako Muhammed.

    It was an opportunity for the minister to prove to Nigerians that the privatisation of the power sector was the best option for the country and that the investors who took over the sector in all the zones are determined to do business by making sure electricity gets to every home in every village across the country.

    The minister appealed to Nigerians to exercise a little patience over the recent shortfall in power supply as the current administration intensify efforts to proffer genuine and permanent solution to the challenges.

    The minister said, “Government appreciates the challenges Nigerians are facing as a result of the shortfall in electricity supply in the country, government also shares the pains associated with insufficient electricity in the country. However, government is appealing to all Nigerians to remain patient and give government a little time because government is coming up with genuine and permanent solutions to the energy crisis.

    “The ongoing reforms in the energy sector is a genuine one that will bring about constant electricity supply to every homes in this country, but a little more patience from all Nigerians is all government needed to concentrate on plans to bring about the lasting solution.”

    The minister called on all the investors in the power sector to be committed and transparent in implementing their own part of agreements for the benefit of electricity consumers in the country. The call has become necessary because Nigerians expect nothing less than quality service from the electricity distributing companies all over the country.

    In a welcome address, Managing Director and Cheif Executive of the Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JED) Muhammed Gidado Modibo said, “the company is injecting N50 billion into the power sector to ensure consumers in the Jos zone enjoy excellent services of the company.

    Gidado said, “The official flagging off of the distribution of 130,000 pre-paid meter and 400 transformers to consumers is a demonstration of our commitment to provide efficient electricity distribution service to people of the zone. This is also a guarantee to our consumers in the zone that in the next few months power supply will change for the better, there will be improvement in electricity supply to every homes within the zone” said Gidado

    He said, “We took over electricity distribution in the zone with a commitment to revamp the company and improve the quality of service within its franchise area of Plateau, Bauchi, Benue and Gombe states.

    “We planned to install 180,000 meters by the end of 2016, already we have taken delivery of 13,000 of those meters and we have commence distributions and installations for our co stompers.

    “JED will also make it easy for our customers to pay their bills by implementing the online vending systems for all pre-paid meter to ease the hassle of going to our cash office to pay their bills.

    In a remark, Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong expressed appreciation to the company and called on private investors to take advantage of the improve power supply in the zone to invest in the state. He said, “It is power supply that drive economic fortunes of any society and now that JED has taken giant step to guarantee steady power supply, I’m expecting investors to start trooping to Plateau state for investment.

    Lalong who urge communities to take responsibility of protecting electricity facilities in their environment against vandalism by criminals applauded the federal government for providing the regulatory framework to stabilize business of the energy sector.

    Former Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Alhaji Yayali Ahmed who chairs the company’s board of directors was also at the event to ensure it works according to plan.