Nigerians advise FG to explore alternative sources of electricity – NAN survey
NAN-HE-6
Power
By Tajudeen Atitebi with reporters
Lagos, Nov. 24, 2016 (NAN) As electric power supply worsens across the country, some Nigerians are calling on the Federal Government to explore other resources to boost power generation.
The stakeholders made the call in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in a nationwide survey.
Their suggestions came against the backdrop of erratic power supply caused by low power generation, old and weak facilities, poor metering, inefficient workforce and corruption, among others.
When the power sector reform was concluded in 2013, the expectation was that these perennial problems were over, but this is not the case.
The problem of low generation has now been compounded by weak evacuation, transmission and distribution facilities.
The total power generation in the country is still as low and between the old range of 3, 500 and 4,800 megawatts even after privatisation.
To boost power generation, stakeholders said that government must explore alternative sources.
Malam Habu Muhammad, an engineer with Gombe Business Unit of Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JEDC), suggested the establishment of solar and wind-propelled micro-grids.
He said that the micro-grids would help to supplement power supply from the national grid.
According to him, the outdated infrastructure in the power sector should be replaced with modern ones to meet the current challenges.
Prof. Emeka Obe, the Head of Electrical Engineering Department, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), also said the government should explore resources that were abundant in each region to generate power.
He said that government could use coal that was abundant in Enugu to provide electricity in the area.
“In the North, where there is high temperature, we can use renewable energy or solar and in the Mambilla Plateau, we use water to generate electricity.
“With all these in place, there will be less dependence on liquefied gas and the Niger Delta militancy will reduce or even stop,’’ he said.
Moshood Bilewu, a lecturer at University of Ilorin, Kwara state, called for the use of biodiesel from agricultural products and even household and industrial wastes to generate power.
According to him, biomass energy can be derived from plants and animals which include organic matter of all kinds and even waste products from organic matters.
Bilewu said if biomass fuel products were harvested and mass-produced, they could be used to power engines and plants.
Mr Nelson Nwokodi, an electrical engineer in Owerri, Imo State, called for decentralisation of power supply in a manner that each state would be allowed to generate its own power.
Nwokodi suggested that private individuals should equally be allowed to build their own power plants to produce light, rather than depend on government.
Mr Jacob Ubih, Chief Executive Officer of Osula consults, an Electricity Distribution Consulting firm in Yola, said that the problem of power supply was the dependence on few electricity generating companies.
Ubih said that power generation was mostly in Southern Nigeria, while the distribution covered the North.
He said that power transmission from the South to the North which covered a long distance, created inefficient distribution problem.
He urged state governments to commence building Independent Power Plants for their local consumption.
“We must not all depend on the national grid for consumption; individuals and states can equally develop their power plants to supplement the output from national grid.
“Every state in this country is endowed with resources that can be used for power generation.
“Even those who cannot go for hydro, can equally utilize either, wastes or solar,” he advised.
Although many Nigerians still blamed privatisation for worsening the power sector, but some experts said that the current issues were beyond the new investors.
An energy expert, Mr Paul Uchenna, said: “everyone who has been following this process knows that quick fixes should not be expected. These are indeed challenging times.
“What’s currently being experienced could be regarded as teething problems which every new comer to an industry process or programme typically experiences.
“I know that NERC, the government is in talks with these investors to help mitigate some of the challenges they are facing.
“Taking the companies to court for breach of contract seems a good advice.
“But right now, Nigerians are really interested in getting steady power supply to help the economy growth and keep the nation moving on the path of development as promised by the government’’.
Mr Charles Fashola, the Managing Director, Seacof Engineering Ltd. in Lagos, said that lack of funding was now the bane of the sector as new investors could not buy new equipment to replace the obsolete ones.
He said that absence of new investments in the sector had worsened power supply in the country.
Mr Simon Andrew, a power consultant in Lagos, also said that the main issues of the new investors were revenue and funding challenges.
Andrew, who is also the Managing Partner, Slongy Power Consultant Ltd., said these operational challenges would continue until there was adequate funding and improvement in revenue profile of the Discos.
“The implementation of cost reflective tariffs, access to long-term debt capital and equity injection will still not address the revenue shortfall in the system in the short term.
“It must be understood that there is time lag between the period these investments are made and the accrual of benefits
“Even if all the required financing are available today, it will take time for technical and non-technical losses to be addressed.
“For instance, it takes between nine to 12 months to build injection substations; it will take at least two years for a Disco to address its metering gap,’’ he said.
Mrs Olufunke Osibodu, the Managing Director, Benin Electricity Distribution, said N250 billion was required annually to address electricity problems in Nigeria.
Osibodu said that huge investment was needed in the power sector for at least five years, adding that Nigerians needed to be patient for result.
“Huge investment is required to clean up the network – at least N250 billion annually.
“Nigerians must understand that the process is not a short term fix, but a long and continuous journey.
“Appropriate tariff (reflecting cost of power) is needed to attract investment and grow supply,” she said.
For now, Nigerians have to contend with the problems until solutions are found.
In Abakaliki, Mrs Eva Ezeh, a civil servant, said electricity consumers had suffered since the privatisation.
Madan Joy Umeh, a hotelier in Awka, said that power outage had drastically reduced her revenues.
“The power supply to the hotel has been low in recent times. How on earth will they want the customers to pay?
“There has been constant poor power supply, but the company continues to bring bills every month,’’ she said.
Poor billing and metering are also part of the issues.
Kenechukwu Ekwueme, a barbing salon operator at the Institute of Management and Technology in Enugu, said that he received a bill of N14,000 for one month as against N1,500 and N3,000 he paid monthly between 2015 and August, 2016.
“The EEDC wants me to shutdown this shop because I cannot cope with their billing.
“Look at my shop, what do I have? Is it not only two bulbs, a fan and clipper and they are billing me N14, 0000 a month.
“This is not an industry, this is only a barbing salon and I am not manufacturing anything here for goodness sake,’’ he said.
Franklin Chukwu, a photocopy machine operator, said that electricity was not reliable as he used generator most times to run his business.
“As you can see, we do not have electricity at the moment and we are working with generator and they are giving me a monthly bill of N10,000,’’ Chukwu said.
The Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KAEDCO), however, said it was addressing the twin problem poor billing and metering in the zone.
It said it had acquired 50,000 prepaid meters to be distributed free to its customers in Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara and Kaduna States.
Its Managing Director, Alhaji Garba Haruna said: ”We have ordered for all these meters and they had since arrived and they are currently being distributed.
”These meters will be distributed free to our customers in the four franchise states based on their various customers’ population.
Alhaji Abdul-Rasak Osho, the Chairman, Iponri Housing Estate Residents’ Association, said that much improvement would not be achieved in the power sector until corruption was reduced to minimal level.
Osho said that more than half of consumers in his area were yet to be metered three years after the directive by Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Company.
“In my area, most of the houses are still on analogue meters and all these meters are not being read by their officials.
“Apart from this, if there is any fault either from transformers or from cable that supplies the estate, the officials will ask landlords to contribute money to buy another cable or to repair the fault.
“If only government can eliminate corruption in power sector and increase the capacity of our transmission, I am sure electricity supply will improve in the country,” he said. (NAN)
Reporters/TA
Edited by Tajudeen Atitebi