mapet:
This is our roadmap to incremental power, because it not only makes the power cheaper, if the fuel is nearer, but it makes it easier to plan and execute transmission plan, to ensure the power is evacuated and distributed.
Other imminent power sources are the 40MW Kasimbilla power plant, the Katsina 10 MW wind and the 222 MW Gbarain plant in Bayelsa State.
There are also those who just require gas to operate and deliver full power such as the AES 240 MW plant in Lagos, the Geregu I and II plants in Kogi state where 4 (FOUR) turbines of 115 MW each simply do not have gas, the Omotosho and Olorunsogo Power Plants where only 3 turbines out of 12 turbines are working, and with the supply of gas we can increase power from the present 160MW to over 600MW.
This is the road map for incremental power.
There is also the plan for Rural Electricity, which should have been completed by law since 2006 but which we inherited and will complete by June this year.
This will detail out the plan to supply power to many of our vulnerable people who live in Rural Areas.
While this is going on, we have about 2,100 Rural projects, mainly constituency projects that were not completed for our budget in 2016 with a view to completing.
Ladies and Gentlemen, in delivering power, we do not act alone.
We need to collaborate with the Ministry of Petroleum Resources to provide gas, the Ministry of Water Resources to provide access to water from the dams and River basins for hydropower, and the Ministry of Solid Minerals for Coal data to assist in reviving some coal power initiatives.
Of course the Ministry of Environment is our regulator to ensure that our mix of power is clean enough not to damage the environment or hurt our people.
Let me restate again that we are not only working together, we are in regular communication and meetings.
The Honorable Minister of State for Petroleum has promised to accelerate the repairs of the damaged Forcados pipeline and restore us to 5000 MW hopefully in June.
The Vice President was also a visitor to the site to encourage prompt completion of the repair works.
In addition, the Ministry of petroleum is working to increase supply to those plants I mentioned: AES, Olorunsogo, Omotosho and Geregu to mention a few.
The Ministry of Water Resources is providing us with data of many dams and water sources across Nigeria that have fallen into disuse and neglect, all of which are capable of delivering some form of power, from the North to the South – Tiga, Challawa, Oyan and Ikere Dams are some examples that readily come to mind.
We have resolved to compile these data, the current photographs of the sites, the statements of requirements for civil Works, electrical and mechanical works, transmission needs and also the immediate and contiguous population as an investment guide to those who seek to take all the opportunities there.
The Ministry of Solid Minerals has provided available data on the prolific coal deposits that can support coal power initiatives, and at the instigation of the Ministry of Environment with their collaboration, we have resolved the framework for ultimately licensing over a dozen prospectors to generate over 1000 MW of solar energy.
As far as generation of more power is concerned, it is clear to us what we must do. It is clear to us how we must do it and it is clear to us how it must be done.
If generating power was the only problem, then the challenges might be easier.
Transmission
However, there is the challenge of transmission, which is the transportation of the power from the generation plants, to the distribution companies who then take it to the homes, offices, factories etc.
This work is done by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) which was not privatized.
They transport power by building transmission towers and stringing electricity cables, which we call high tension wires here, and installing Transmission, Transformers and so on.
Today they can only transport 5000 MW. That is all we have done since 1950. We must do more and we are on the way.
There are currently about 126 projects awarded for this purpose but with all sorts of problems.
About 907 containers of various equipment imported in the ports, paid for, have been abandoned with demurrage, port charges and all sorts of costs by contractors who have deserted their contracts.
Approvals have been given by Mr. President for their release, we have met with Customs, the shippers, the warehouse owners and operators all of whom have shown an inspiring sense of patriotism to release their containers. These meetings are being chaired by the Vice President.
The containers, expectedly contain all sorts of equipment , which hopefully when recovered will help solve some of our transmission problems.
The related challenge which we are working on is the logistics of warehousing, transportation, inventory and matters related thereto, so that the problem is not transferred from the port to an inland storage. This is part of our roadmap to incremental power. To Transport the power that we plan to produce.
Of course out of the 126 difficult existing contracts plagued by court cases, compensation disputes, way leave challenges, which I mentioned, we have identified 47 which are prepared for completion this year through the 2016 budget. This is the roadmap to incremental power.
But in addition to this immediate plan, TCN has expressed a desire to increase transmission capacity from 5000 MW to 7000 MW, 10,000 MW to 13,000 MW to 16,000 MW and 20,000 MW over 5(FIVE) years from this year.
We have demanded and there are now working to provide us with an implementation plan for each stage; including the detail quantities, design, way leave, cost and everything that will facilitate efficient project implementation
We are also looking at technical possibilities that support the decentralization of the grid while keeping them interconnected.
This will help us take up offers of private investment that ensures that investors can ring fence and collect revenues wheeling charges for the power they help to transmit or transport.
Ladies and gentlemen, this may sound long, but I assure you it is only a summary.
I will now attempt to deal with steady power and uninterrupted power.
Steady Power
While I am optimistic about our plans for incremental power, it is steady power that takes us closer to our goal.
Power cannot be steady unless is is enough. Not only must it be enough, we must create excess capacity. The necessity for excess capacity is discernible from what I have said about the need for maintenance repairs and replacements in places like Kainji, Jebba and other plants.
Powerplants and turbines are not different from our generators at home. If you have only one and it needs to be fixed, it cannot produce power during repairs.
What other countries with steady power do, is to have more than enough, so that while they repair damaged, broken or aging ones, they switch to reserves or excess capacity.
That is what we must do.
Our roadmap to steady power must include the construction and delivery of the Mambilla Hydro power plant in Taraba state.
This project has been in conception since 1982. It has suffered from court delays. But it sits very well with the energy mix that I spoke about earlier. It will be the single largest power plant with over 3000 MW in one place and it potentially takes us close to steady power.
I recently read reports claiming that Mambilla hydropower plant is “stalled.”
Nothing can be further from the truth.
To stall means to stop. Mambilla has not started so you cannot stop what has not started.
We have opened discussions with the Governor of Taraba state, Governor Dickson Ishaku, who incidentally was once a Minister of State for Power. The first thing to do is to acquire the land and deal with compensation issues, which the Governor has promised to deal with.
The next step is to create an earth road to the site to enable more tests of soil and related issues to take place.
The feasibility study has been done and so too the Environmental Impact Assessment.
We move one day at a time closer to starting Mambilla.
But while we’re at it Mambila alone , may not give us steady power. We must know how many we are, so that we can meet the per capita demand of each citizen for power supply.
Without the data, which should come from the next census exercise, the roadmap to steady power is further down the road.
In our quest for steady power, we have also sent letters to local Federal universities as a start to conduct their energy audits and supply results to us and enable us determine their energy needs and hopefully provide dedicated power to these learning institutions and affiliate teaching hospitals.
This way we will be impacting education and healthcare.
We are similarly reviewing data collected by Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in respect of industries and factories with the hope of facilitating similar solutions.
These are some of the elements of our roadmap to stable power. They involve the use of Dedicated and Embedded power on a willing buyer, willing seller basis, which is one of the initiatives of the new Tariff.
Of course our monthly meeting which moves from state to state, power location to power location has held unfailingly since January 2016, from Abuja, to Lagos, to Enugu and Calabar and at each meeting we are resolving problems with all the stakeholders from gas, to generation, transmission and distribution in attendance.
At each meeting we are reviewing the progress report of each DisCo for metering and holding them to the implementation of their own metering plan. Sooner rather than later, we will resolve the metering gap.
Ladies and gentlemen, the roadmap to steady power also requires that reportage of power issues should be accurate.
One of the recent inaccurate reports related to CAPMI, the Credit Advance Payment Metering Initiative ,was that I had scrapped it . This is not correct.
What is correct is that since the DisCos now have a market tariff it is their responsibility to find meters as a basis for collection. I think it is unfair to collect money for meters and not supply it within the agreed time.
The correct Resolution passed at our meeting in Enugu was that DisCos should now fund the supply of meters and wind down the Credit Advance programme gradually, so that the burden of funding meters is not perpetually placed on consumers.
The responsibility of Consumers is to pay their Bills for energy they consume not to finance meters.
Our March 2016 monthly meeting further resolved that where DisCos have collected money, they should supply the meters and stop collecting more money; instead they should use their resources to provide meters.
One of the objectives of the monthly meeting, apart from solving problems, is to issue accurate information signed by all stakeholders present, about development in the power sector.
I will now quickly move to summarizing our roadmap to uninterrupted power.
Uninterrupted Power
This has a lot more to do with our people than with our service providers.
The first thing is sustainability of the sector, particularly financial sustainability. Everybody who provides service must also be paid, so that they can continue to do so.
This is what NBET, the Bulk Trader, is trying to achieve with the Bond that guarantees payment to all, even if one player defaults.
It also requires all of us to pay our bills especially Government consumers.
But more importantly we must conserve energy.
In my recent travels to parts of Nigeria, I observed houses, shops, canteens with external bulbs lit up during the day. This is waste. It will impede our roadmap to uninterrupted power.
Nothing can ever be enough if we waste it.
The whole world is moving towards energy friendly homes, where houses are built to use the rays of the sun to light up a home during the day.
There are many homes, offices, factories etc. that have been so poorly built that you cannot operate in them during the day without switching on a light bulb. This is anti-conservation and we must depart from it.
There is a global surge towards energy saving bulbs, televisions and electrical appliances that switch themselves off or switch to standby mode when not in use. These are global best practices for conservation. Those who have more power supply than us are embracing them and we must not be left behind.
There are public facilities in hotels, hospitals offices where toilets and similar facilities switch off power when nobody is there. I believe they use motion sensors. We must embrace them.
In our homes, we must put off appliances, that are not in use; and we must teach our children, right from school, to conserve energy. This, ladies and gentlemen, is our roadmap to uninterrupted power.
There are many other things I would like to discuss such as the roles of NERC, NBET, REA, NEMSA, NELMCO, NDPHC and the APT in the Vice President’s office which time prevents me from doing.
But let me also say before I close, that we are developing multi-pronged information channels, programmes, docu-dramas that will help enlighten our people and bring more information in the weeks and months to come.
However, in closing let me say that this Government is committed to improving the power situation.
It is working through many teams and very soon results will manifest.
I am optimistic because of the collaboration of my colleagues, the Ministers in other ministries upon which our success depends.
I am optimistic by the enthusiasm and renewed dedication of all our staff in the ministry and the Honourable Minister of State.
Most importantly, the enthusiasm of our young people makes me believe that we can solve this problem.
Mustapha, the young man who sat next to me on a flight to Abuja from Lagos recently, makes me believe that this can be achieved. He is already a player in the solar business.
Almost one in every five of the young people I encounter is doing something with power.
This is a critical mass that is bigger than the power challenge.
Whenever Nigerian youths sign up for a cause, they have never lost.
From the struggle against colonialism, to the agitation for democracy and lately to the demand for change, the Nigerian youth have been victorious.
In this concerted effort for electrifying Nigeria, I expect no other result but victory.
I will play my part and I hope you will all play yours.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is my attempt to summarize what we have been doing with your time and your resources for the past 5 months and 24 days since our assumption of office in the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.
http://www.thescoopng.com/must-read-fashola-reveals-the-road-map-for-incremental-steady-and-uninterrupted-power/?utm_source=&utm_medium=twitter int i = s.indexOf(".jpeg"  ; |
