Ladies and Gentleman,
[b]
When I assumed office as minister, maybe I should have done some of the more traditional things.

To tell you that your generators will disappear in one year or to tell you how many Thousands of Megawatts you will get in how many months.


I am sure these would have grabbed a lot of headlines and attracted front page coverage.


But history tells us clearly that we have done all these before and we still do not have enough power.


I could also have started by telling you how many people will be probed for all the money spent on power.


But those of you who choose not to forget will remember that we have probed almost everybody and every institution concerned with power in the past and we still do not have enough power.


I could also have started by announcing or recommending that the privatization process should be cancelled.


I know first that cancellation of contracts is not a good signal to send to investors; even if it grabs the headlines it will be for the wrong reasons.


History also tells us that we have revoked, cancelled or reversed previous privatization initiatives with refineries before and we still haven’t overcome the problem.[/b]


I have chosen to start my discussion this way because my topic is “Nigeria’s Electricity Challenge: A roadmap for change.”



I believe we must depart from these routes we have previously travelled if we must overcome the electricity challenge and I am optimistic that we can.

In charting the roadmap for change, I am of the view that we must first tell ourselves what is wrong.

The simplest way I can put it is to say that we do not have enough power.

Since 1950 when the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN), the predecessor of NEPA and PHCN, was created, the maximum energy we have generated stands at 5074 MW was achieved in February 2016 this year.


This is not enough to power a country whose population is in the hundreds of millions and is still growing.


So in answer to the big question, ‘What is the roadmap?’ I say it is getting “incremental power”, in a way that every Megawatt of power must be harnessed and made available to our people.


From “incremental power” we should maybe then seek to deliver “steady power” and from then go on to “uninterrupted power.”


In the quest for incremental power, we must not overlook the things we have done poorly in the past.


They range from improperly erected distribution poles, characterized by poor quality materials, poor workmanship, poor standards by local and foreign contractors who were employed to deliver the services and did not give us value for money.


We must look at cable theft, vandalization of pipelines and transformers, power theft by consumers who use energy without meters or consumers who pay unscrupulous people who help bypass meters.


We must look at court disputes, and protests and those who attack the efficiency of the power system in order to resolve grievances.

We must resolve that these will not happen again in our road map for change.

incremental power


In our road map to incremental power we are looking at what we have and what we can get out of them.


We have 26 (TWENTY-SIX) power plants (including the AES plant) , 3 (THREE) of the plants are powered by water, the Hydro power plants in Jebba, Kainji and Shiroro.



The remainder are powered by gas.


The total number of turbines which should actually generate power from 25 (TWENTY-FIVE) power plants (excluding AES) is 140 turbines. ( Installed capacity of 12,341MW).


At the best of times only about 78 turbines are generating power which gave us our peak of 5074 MW.


The problems have been identified as either damaged, unmaintained or unserviced turbines in the Hydro power plants, and in the cases of gas plants, it is largely non-availability of gas, coupled with lack of maintenance.

I will illustrate with a few examples.

The Jebba Hydro power plant was commissioned in 1985 by President Buhari with 6 (SIX) turbines to provide 540MW of power; from water energy from Kainji.


In the briefing I received on assumption of office, the turbines were to be overhauled as scheduled maintenance once every 5-6 years. This was never done for 28 years, until it was handed over in 2013, in the aftermath of the privatization.


The first overhaul has now been completed and more will be undertaken. This is incremental power.


In the report recently submitted to my office by the concessionaire of Jebba and Kainji, the total available capacity of the 2 (TWO) plants is 482 MW and 340 MW respectively totaling 822 MW and they plan to get to 1338 MW. This is incremental power.


Egbin Power plant in Ikorodu was delivered in 1985 during the tenure of President Babangida. It had 6 (SIX) turbines with total capacity of 1,320 MW.


When it was handed over in 2013, it had only 2 (Two) functional turbines and just about 400 MW generating capacity.


I was at the plant in December 2015, to switch on Turbine 6, which means all the 6 (SIX) turbines have been restored. This is incremental power.

Story for the gods.


Minister of Darkness and Rocket Science, give Nigerians stable power or resign to enjoy your loots...

Over hyped element.

But these are just examples of the maintenance and technical challenges we grapple with daily in the Government from the President, to the Vice-President, and the Ministry who seek to manage the men and women.

Let me share with you some of the human and administrative challenges, relating to incremental power.

You might recall the announcement of an alleged “commissioning” of a power plant in Edo state by the last administration during the election campaign. This was the Azura power project meant to deliver 450 Megawatts. In reality what took place was only the turning of the sod.

The main activity which were Government securities and guarantees to enable the financing of the project were never issued. This was delayed for about a year.


It was the Buhari administration that prioritized this, resolved it, and work has now started with 422 workers on site and estimated completion date of December 2018. This is the road to incremental power.

You might also recall the Aba Power plant initiated by Prof. Barth Nnaji to generate140 MW and ring fence Aba for dedicated power long before he was ever appointed minister.


He had an agreement which assured him that the plant will never be sold in the event of privatization. This agreement was given by the Government of Nigeria

The same Government later made another agreement, ignoring the original one, and sold Enugu DisCo to a new owner which included Aba Power.



In the event, none of the parties were to blame.

They had legitimate contracts which were conflicting and issued by the same government.


Instead of spending their energy and resources completing the power plants and delivering electricity, they were forced to spend their resources and energy seeking to untie themselves from the problems created by government since 2013.


This government has waded into the matter, and, through the Vice President, directed our ministry to facilitate reconciliation, and with the cooperation of the parties, their sense of patriotism, we got the parties out-of-court in a settlement three years after.


We are now formalizing their papers so that they can operate independently and collaborate to supply power to Aba and Enugu Distribution that covers most of the East instead of fighting in court.


Solving the problems of yesterday is the road to incremental power.

Hahaha. Minister of Darkness !

Other examples are Zungeru Power Plant, meant to deliver 700 MW in Niger state but which was held up in court for several years.



Although the project is now three years behind, the dispute has been resolved, parties are out of court, over 800 workers are back on site and this should deliver incremental power.


There is also the 215 MW plant in Kaduna which was designed to use gas, which is several hundred kilometers away from gas sources. While we are working to consider alternative and sustainable fuel supply, we have resolved never to site power plants far away from their fuel source.

To achieve this, we are working round-the-clock within the ministry, and with other ministries like Solid Minerals, Water Resources and Ministry of Environment, to deliver an energy mix that will assist power production, investors and all stakeholders on how to site solar power in the North, Hydro Power in the North and North-Central, Coal in the North Central and South East and gas in the South-West and South-South.



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.

Well said

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.

Make i sit down for here first

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.

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.

Beautiful read, my late uncle will always exclaim "beautiful word I love to hear".
May his soul rest in peace.

God bless Fashola and me too

Abeg I don tire to copy & paste. The full speech can be read here

http://www.nigeriaelectricityhub.com/?p=6455

Having read it all, I can now see that there is no immiediate solution to our power problem.

Even if all the turbines were working & 12,000MW was generated, the transmission company cannot transmit it.

Greed, selfish interest & corruption has caused the rot in the power sector?

What i dont understand is why are the DISCO's untouchable?

What gives them the balls to act with impunity?

Why can't they be severly sanctioned?

Maybe they have bribed NERC

To me, NERC is a toothless local breed dog!

No investment whatsoever on the DISCO's
part

They wont provide prepaid meters inspite of the fact that the consumer paid for it

They won't replace fallen poles or faulty transformers, they will wait for the community or street to raise the funds

Firefire:
Story for the gods.
Minister of Darkness and Rocket Science, give Nigerians stable power or resign to enjoy your loots...
Over hyped element.

i enjoy d explaination, no wonder we have stable light, fashola is really working, haters can come and hug my transformer, if u wil not vanish from this world

Oga rocket science please stop explaining to us. Are these problems peculiar to just you alone? Didn't you know this before attacking the people there earlier? Na me happy pass as dem give u this portfolio. Deal with it please

No need for any epistles Fashola should provide power he was appointed to provide. All Nairalanders know where to go if we need to read journal. OP tell Fashola power is not story telling. He should just do it. How he does it is no business of mine. Fashola left no room for Jonathan's story on power Nigerians are not ready for his story as well.

bishopkay:
Oga rocket science please stop explaining to us. Are these problems peculiar to just you alone? Didn't you know this before attacking the people there earlier? Na me happy pass as dem give u this portfolio. Deal with it please

I doubt you read a quarter of the piece but here you are showing your dislike for intellectual reasoning. It is like a child who cries (or wails!) to mummy that he wants to eat and mummy says the gas just finished and that she would go and buy kerosene to complete the cooking. The little child most likely not understand that 'epistle'. All the child wants is food! Whether the mum has to cut his hand for him to eat he doesn't give a damn!

Many Nigerians are like that baby. The don't understand process. They think results are magic. Why won't they think like that? Some of them had their Final year Long Essay(project) written by 'consultants'. They have not yet developed the power of intellectual rigour to get things done. Hence they can't show empathy to anyone doing the same.

Fashola, to me, is a presidential material.

ayokellany:
No need for any epistles Fashola should provide power he was appointed to provide. All Nairalanders know where to go if we need to read journal. OP tell Fashola power is not story telling. He should just do it. How he does it is no business of mine. Fashola left no room for Jonathan's story on power Nigerians are not ready for his story as well.

I doubt you read a quarter of the piece but here you are showing your dislike for intellectual reasoning. It is like a child who cries (or wails!) to mummy that he wants to eat and mummy says the gas just finished and that she would go and buy kerosene to complete the cooking. The little child most likely not understand that 'epistle'. All the child wants is food! Whether the mum has to cut his hand for him to eat he doesn't give a damn!
Many Nigerians are like that baby. The don't understand process. They think results are magic. Why won't they think like that? Some of them had their Final year Long Essay(project) written by 'consultants'. They have not yet developed the power of intellectual rigour to get things done. Hence they can't show empathy to anyone doing the same.
Fashola, to me, is a presidential material.

Story for d gods ....If u can't deliver , you simply tender your resignation letter..... Abeg show a nlander some bday love

hero2000:


I doubt you read a quarter of the piece but here you are showing your dislike for intellectual reasoning. It is like a child who cries (or wails!) to mummy that he wants to eat and mummy says the gas just finished and that she would go and buy kerosene to complete the cooking. The little child most likely not understand that 'epistle'. All the child wants is food! Whether the mum has to cut his hand for him to eat he doesn't give a damn!

Many Nigerians are like that baby. The don't understand process. They think results are magic. Why won't they think like that? Some of them had their Final year Long Essay(project) written by 'consultants'. They have not yet developed the power of intellectual rigour to get things done. Hence they can't show empathy to anyone doing the same.

Fashola, to me, is a presidential material.

Sorry to ruffle your feathers but I doubt you could comprehend what I wrote there.
Over the years in my business dealings, I've a simple principle...put your mouth where your money is. Fashola said a serious government should be able to solve power problems in six months. He further boasted of what he did in Lagos and peeps like you applauded him.

Fast forward to over six months since getting the portfolio of the power ministry and we are even worse off than before he took over. Excuses, excuses and more excuses. Is he indirectly telling us the Buhari government isn't serious?

About you thinking Fashola is presidential material, that's your own opinion and you are entitled to it. I actually thought in that light too one certain time until he went about maintaining websites for 175 million naira.
Also for your information, I read more than QUARTER of the original post. #peace

hero2000:


I doubt you read a quarter of the piece but here you are showing your dislike for intellectual reasoning. It is like a child who cries (or wails!) to mummy that he wants to eat and mummy says the gas just finished and that she would go and buy kerosene to complete the cooking. The little child most likely not understand that 'epistle'. All the child wants is food! Whether the mum has to cut his hand for him to eat he doesn't give a damn!

Many Nigerians are like that baby. The don't understand process. They think results are magic. Why won't they think like that? Some of them had their Final year Long Essay(project) written by 'consultants'. They have not yet developed the power of intellectual rigour to get things done. Hence they can't show empathy to anyone doing the same.

Fashola, to me, is a presidential material.

Sorry to ruffle your feathers but I doubt you could comprehend what I wrote there.
Over the years in my business dealings, I've a simple principle...put your mouth where your money is. Fashola said a serious government should be able to solve power problems in six months. He further boasted of what he did in Lagos and peeps like you applauded him.

Fast forward to over six months since getting the portfolio of the power ministry and we are even worse off than before he took over. Excuses, excuses and more excuses. Is he indirectly telling us the Buhari government isn't serious?

About you thinking Fashola is presidential material, that's your own opinion and you are entitled to it. I actually thought in that light too one certain time until he went about maintaining websites for 175 million naira.
Also for your information, the problems there are not unique to him and I read more than QUARTER of the original post #peace

I knew it would come to this. Fashola the propangandist. Exploiting the media to seek sympathy from gullible Nigerians. Here is a man who boasted about solving Nigeria's power issue. I had concerns over his appointment because what is a lawyer doing in a field meant for engineers!

Fashola has done a perfect job to elucidate Nigeria's power issue and little on how to solve it and when to solve it. When Prof Barth Nnaji was there, he did not run his mouth like Fashola, he fought till the wicked interest group took him out, but we saw some impact.

Fashola leave the media alone and face the job. Clearly from your stories, we should give up on steady power supply throughout Buhari's tenure. Please note that it would be a huge failure on your part and that of Buhari if such situation happens

Did Fashola read this before boasting that Electricity generation was not rocket science?

All I can see from this write up is someone trying to find excuses for his failure and desperately fighting to save his job.,it seems fashola sense an impending sack of him from the ministry of power. The truth is fashola has failed woefully in all the ministries handed over to him

idupaul:
Did Fashola read this before boasting that Electricity generation was not rocket science?

Dont mind the foool.he thinks he can fool Nigerians the same way he fooled lagosians for 8 solid years

bishopkay:
Oga rocket science please stop explaining to us. Are these problems peculiar to just you alone? Didn't you know this before attacking the people there earlier? Na me happy pass as dem give u this portfolio

na wa oo, ipod yoot are just too lazy to read, fashola said gej sold ipod power to two buyers, that is corruption, and d matter has be resolve, thanks to fashola