•To unbundle TCN into 2 entities over poor performance
From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
The Federal Government, yesterday, came down hard on the power sector operators, lamenting that only 40 per cent of Nigerians can access power supply.
In his goodwill message at the Ministerial Retreat on the Integrated National Electricity Policy and Strategic Implementation Plan, in Abuja, the Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, said that the situation was unacceptable to government.
For him, the privatisation of the power sector has underperformed and its very disappointing, adding that the government can only rely on renewable energy for greener and cleaner power and to grow the economy.
“Power is one of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s priority areas to drive a rapid, sustainable economic growth.
“Power is clearly at the heart of his programme. We cannot have industrialisation and growth in manufacturing without electricity.
Forty per cent of the Nigerian population have access to electricity and clearly to Mr President, that is unacceptable.
Ten years ago, there was a privatisation exercise, but it has underwhelmed and underperformed and the result has been disappointing. So, it is important that stakeholders are part of the conversations and solutions.
“In addition to all other options that we have for pricing electricity, we now have an array of options with the renewable energy. It cannot be that we have the choice of going all green, all we want to see is a solution of providing power and growing the economy rapidly.
“So, that is the mandate for all stakeholders. They should protect the environment, but more importantly they must provide the basis for growing Nigeria’s economy” he said.
But for the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, out of the $100 billion per annum investment in power, only 14 per cent will come from the public sector.
“Our long time plan, Agenda 2050, is a major plank to deliver our investment in power and only 14 per cent of the $100 billion per annum investment is expected to come from the public. So, we have a lot to do in order to meet Nigerians’ electricity need. The National Integrated Infrastructure Masterplan is a significant work done in terms of power component and most of it was done by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning…”
“Equally, one of the things we have been doing last week in the eco- system is Mr President’s interaction with investors and development partners around the world,” he said.
Bagudu also disclosed that as part of global gateway funding of ¢300 billion, ¢150 billion is designated for Africa and they even expect to spend the fund before the year 2030.
Meanwhile, in view of the inability of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to transmit enough electricity due to ageing and dilapidated infrastructure, Federal Government, yesterday indicated plans to unbundle the company into two.
In his opening remarks, at the Ministerial Retreat on the Integrated National Electricity Policy and Strategic Implementation Plan, in Abuja, Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu said that it was time to restructure TCN into two entities – the Independent System Operator (ISO) and the Transmission Service Provider.
The Minister decried the low performance of TCN in the electricity supply industry, saying that the only way to make it functional and more effective is to balkanise it.
“The Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) transmission sub-sector has been identified as a critical weak point in the value chain lately, a view widely shared. To align with the Electricity Act 2023 and the industry’s demands, it’s time to restructure the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) into two entities: the Independent System Operator (ISO) and the Transmission Service Provider (TSP). This restructuring must synchronise with the evolving landscape of State Electricity Markets, addressing calls for the decentralisation of the national grid into regional grids interconnected by a new higher voltage national or super-grid” he said.
According to him, the nation now generates over 98 per cent of electricity through renewable as against the 70.5 per cent generated last year.
“As at 2022, 70.5 per cent of our grid electricity was generated by thermal plants, 27.3 per cent from hydro, whilst solar and other power plants made up 2.2 per cent. The good news here is that over 98 per cent of the feedstock powering electricity generation in the country are transition or clean fuels, as Nigeria ramps up capacity to generate more electricity through renewable means such as solar, hydro, wind, bioenergy and others,” he said.
Adelabu regretted that electricity consumption in Nigeria is low compared to other neighbouring African countries.
“One of the main objectives of the Nigerian electricity sector reform programme initiated over 23 years ago is to make electricity available to consumers across the country with efficiency and consistency, which in turn lead to general reliability and affordability. Even as electricity consumption per capita was at 140 KWh in 2021, relatively low in comparison to neighbouring countries and almost three times lower than the average for Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria is a case study in a deep electricity paradox. Nigeria has grown to become the host of probably the world’s largest fleet of diesel- and petrol-powered generation capacity that is utilised for baseload supply. Various figures have been mentioned but it is safe to say that this fleet measures no less that 40,000MW of total capacity. At an average operating cost of no less than N250/kWh as opposed to an average economic tariff today of approximately N120/kWh (weighted between petrol and diesel generation), the daily cost of this extreme inefficiency in electricity supply in Nigeria, is measurable in tens of billions of naira daily,” he stated.
Recall that TCN’s general manager for the Port Harcourt region, Inugonum, at the weekend, said that the country is supposed to transmit about 15,000MW, but “we are unable to meet this capacity due to weak and ageing infrastructure,” he said.