• $3.5b spent on transmission

Nigeria is considering offers of more than $20 billion for the assets of its national electricity transmission company as it struggles to provide adequate power to Africa’s largest economy, Power Minister Chinedu Nebo said.

The sale of state-owned Transmission Co. of Nigeria may start “in a few years,” Nebo said in a chat with Bloomberg Television Africa in Abuja. The government will also focus on developing renewable energy projects to diversify its supply of electricity, he said.

“The interest now for transmission is over $20 billion; People are coming from everywhere,” he said.

Transmission is the only segment of the power industry that the government still controls as it seeks to curb regular blackouts in a ountry which generates about a 10th of the power that South Africa does even though its population of about 170 million is more than three times larger.

The Federal Government has spent $3.5 billion to boost transmission capacity by 50 per cent. Nigeria sold 15 state-owned generation and distribution firms to raise funds.

The transmission capacity of Abuja-based TCN is 5,500 megawatts (Mw) compared with an installed generation capacity of 8,000Mw, Nebo said. This means that if generation firms were operating at full capacity, the grid would be unable to transmit all of the power to homes. The government wants transmission capacity to exceed 6,000 Mw by 2016, Nebo said.

Power generation is significantly lower than capacity, partially due to problems of transporting gas to power plants. Many companies and individuals are compelled to use diesel-powered generators to ensure adequate electricity.

“Gas supply has been a limiting factor,” said Nebo, who is working with Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke to make enough gas available to generation companies to match the transmission capacity by the end of next year.

“Nigeria is moving in the direction of trying to have a robust energy mix,” he said.

Coal is another resource that could generate between 3,000 and 5,000 Mw of power “in the next several years” after government reclaims unused coal blocks, the minister said.

“We are working on making sure those coal blocks are taken away from those who have refused to develop them over the decades and are given to those who can actually develop them,” he said.

Officials are deciding which model to adopt for the company’s sale. Manitoba Hydro-Electric Board of Canada’s three-year management contract ends next year. The process could take the form of a public-private partnership, a concession or a build-operate-transfer, Nebo said.

SOURCE: http://thenationonlineng.net/new/govt-to-sell-20b-power-transmission-assets/

SOURCE 2: http://brainnewsng.com/govt-to-sell-20b-power-transmission-assets/