NAN-HE-22
Energy
By Kingsley Okoye
Abuja, Oct. 13, 2016(NAN) The Kaduna State Government says it will require N150 billion to be sufficient in energy generation and supply by 2020 .
Gov. Nasir El Rufai announced this in Abuja on Thursday at the 5th Annual Powering Africa Nigeria Conference.
El Rufai, represented by Dr Abdulkarim Mayere, Managing Director, Kaduna State Power Supply Company, said Kaduna like other states, was facing challenge of paucity of power supply and energy development.
He attributed the challenges to generation and transmission limitations.
The governor said that the estimated energy demand and supply between 2016 and 2020 was 538 Mega Watts (MW) and 787MW.
El Rufai said that the current supply of unstable power in the state was about 196 MW with a gap of about 342MW.
He said that the state government had significant interest in pursuing initiatives that would increase electricity supply to its citizens and drive economic growth.
The governor said that the state required an energy policy to guide its activities, adding that the policy would ensure the attainment of energy security and sustainability.
According to him, energy policy developed by the state will govern four key areas of incremental power supply, energy efficiency measures, capacity building and rural electrification access.
El Rufai also identified four key energy mix to achieve its plan of sufficiency in electricity.
The energy mix includes grid power supply, which involves energy imported to the state through the national grid, Gas/ LPFO power supply, which entails energy generated in the state using any form of gas/liquid fossil fuel.
Other energy mix to be utilised by the state are solar energy, coal, hydro and energy saving measures.
He said that the Federal Government had already invested some amount toward the development of power plants in the state, which would provide 50 per cent of the projected energy demand.
This, he said, would lead to a balance of N75 billion to meet the proposed demand by 2020.
He said that about N19 billion was required annually over the next four years to meet the energy demands of the state. (NAN)
KC/MNA/IA
(Edited by Maureen Atuonwu/Idris Abdulrahman)