Government targets 13,500mw electricity generation
The federal government has said it intends to increase electricity generation to about 13,500 megawatts by 2013, as part of the medium term strategy to achieve stability in the power sector.
The minister of state for power, Nuhu Wya, said that in the short term, about 900 megawatts are from available assets. This is lower than the 16,000 megawatts projected in February 2010 by the former minister of power, Lanre Babalola.
Speaking at the annual power conference organised by Businessday Newspaper in Lagos yesterday, Mr. Wya said government is fully committed to achieving improvement in the power sector.
"An additional 4,500 megawatts will be generated with ongoing project while 3,300 megawatts will be generated by Independent Power Projects (IPP)," Mr. Wya said.
According to him, government has set aside N57 billion to settle seven years monetisation arrears of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) workers.
"This is the largest commitment to any workforce by government so far, all in the bid to improve the erratic and unpredictable state of power supply," he further said.
The blueprint for the Vision 20:2020 projects that Nigeria would require about 60,000 megawatts in order to be among the top 20 economies in the world by the year 2020.
Barth Nnaji, chairman of the presidential task force on power, said since the present administration came in, about 1,000 megawatts have been added to the national grid, while there has been more stability in systems output.
"We have had only two incidents of systems collapse this year, unlike two to three that we used to record every month previously," Mr. Nnaji said.
Gradual progress
He disclosed that over 45 IPPs have been licensed while the bulk trader that would ensure that power generated by the private sector investors find ready market has been established.
According to him, the country was making gradual progress in the quest to make the power sector attractive to private investors.
"A year ago, a whole number of regulatory issues needed to be addressed. Last year, the regulatory commission was not in place, but now we are it is in place," he stated.
Sam Amadi, chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), said the commission was committed to working to guarantee that private monopoly does not replace the public monopoly that previously existed in the power sector.
He said the commission would copy power framework from other countries and adapt it to the Nigerian situation to ensure efficiency.
He also said new electricity tariffs would be released within the next two months.
"The tariff that would be announced would ensure that you (investors) recover all credible and allowable investment that would attract you to make investment in this sector," he said.
However, Mr. Amadi said there would be a public hearing on the tariff so that it could be challenged by investors and consumers.
Pragmatic reforms
According to Mr. Amadi, ongoing reforms in the power sector should be pragmatic and not ideological; adding that it could be misleading to assume that inefficiency would disappear once the private sector comes in.
"Put differently, privatising alone may not be the answer to the challenges in the electricity sector. The principal hidden problem that undermined public company could undermine the private companies, if the governance structure is not done right."
Appropriate structures need to be put in place to ensure that the power sector is run efficiently once the entire privatization process is concluded, he added.
"We should not waste anymore time cuddling the dead baby. If we have to liquidate the PHCN headquarters, we should do it. But we should not do so without taking care of the welfare of the workers," Mr. Amadi said.
The promise to generate more power has been made by governments since the return of the country to democratic rule in 1999. However, despite the billions of naira spent by the various governments, not much impact has been felt by the consumers.