[size=14pt]We Must Achieve 6,000 Megawatts – Jonathan [/size]
Written by Golu Timothy, Abuja
Sunday, 21 February 2010 19:27

Acting President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan said yesterday that government’s dream to actualise 6,000 megawatts of electricity had not gone down the drain. He challenged relevant institutions to wake up and ensure the dream was met.

To this end, Dr. Jonathan said government had set a daily target of one billion cubic feet of gas supply for the ministry of petroleum resources, so that complaints of gas shortage should not keep cropping up.

A reliable top presidency source, who confided in reporters said, the acting president had tasked the ministry to ensure that the management of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), Shell, Chevron and other major gas producers in the country are compelled to provide the required quantity of dry gas.

This, the source said, is to meet the target of 6,000 megawatts of electricity for the country.

According to the source, "The Acting President is very unhappy with the ministry for its failure to generate gas to power the government’s 6,000 megawatts of electricity. He has directed that all the gas producers in the country must provide the one billion daily gas target to the power plants," the source said.

Jonathan was visibly angry during last week’s meeting of the Presidential Steering Council on National Integrated Power Project (NIPP), when he directed the minister of petroleum resources, Dr. Rilwan Lukman, to summon all the gas producers in the country to a meeting to iron out the grey areas in the one billion gas daily supply arrangement.

His approval of the appointment of an executive director to co-ordinate the operations of the Nigeria Independent Power Project, NIPP, is also, according to the source, another indication that he was dissatisfied with the progress so far made in the power sector.

"I think the time has come for the government to do what is right. Any gas producer who tells Nigerians that it is shutting its plant because it wants to evacuate condensates or maintain pipelines without recourse to due process, should be sanctioned. There should be penalties for this kind of sabotage. We must stop this nonsense perpetrated by these companies. It is either they do business here or they don’t," the source added.

Our correspondent gathered that due to the nonchalant attitude of the ministry and other stakeholders, the country only gets about 250 million gas supply, leaving a shortfall of 750 million.

http://leadershipnigeria.com/index.php/news/headlines/12214-we-must-achieve-6000-megawatts--jonathan

Na today.?, I hope he wont be swayed by the pressure of office.

If Jonathan really wants to take care of the power situation, he needs to get government hands off of power. Look what happened to telecoms once the government let go of it stranglehold on the industry. He either needs to allow any state that wants to come off the national grid to do so (as long as they show proof that they can provide power for their state) or he should completely let power to be handled by private companies who will be interested in making sure that facilities and equipment are running in top shape. Until one of these is done or until we get trustworthy people in government, uninterrupted power will just be a pipe dream.

^^^ True talk.

first of were is the time.

We need way more than 6000 MW

trueword:

If Jonathan really wants to take care of the power situation, he needs to get government hands off of power. Look what happened to telecoms once the government let go of it stranglehold on the industry.  He either needs to allow any state that wants to come off the national grid to do so (as long as they show proof that they can provide power for their state) or he should completely let power to be handled by private companies who will be interested in making sure that facilities and equipment are running in top shape. Until one of these is done or until we get trustworthy people in government, uninterrupted power will just be a pipe dream.

Power is not telecoms. Privatization of electric power will be the ruin of the sector.

biina:

Power is not telecoms. Privatization of electric power will be the ruin of the sector.

Oh really? So a country like the U.S. has stable power because the government is the one running the power sector.  In the U.S. private companies run the power situation and everything is going fine. These companies are interested in investing in new technology to help reduce costs and improve efficiency, so they have a stake in making sure that things are working correctly in order for them to make money. These govt. people don't care if light is on or off as long as they get their cut of the money, which they will then use to buy big generator and lots of fuel.

Billions of dollars have supposedly been spent on power, but there is nothing to show for it. No private company that wants to stay in business would throw away billions of dollars.

So the argument that privatization won't work doesn't isn't true.

trueword:

Oh really? So a country like the U.S. has stable power because the government is the one running the power sector.  In the U.S. private companies run the power situation and everything is going fine. These companies are interested in investing in new technology to help reduce costs and improve efficiency, so they have a stake in making sure that things are working correctly in order for them to make money. These govt. people don't care if light is on or off as long as they get their cut of the money, which they will then use to buy big generator and lots of fuel.

Billions of dollars have supposedly been spent on power, but there is nothing to show for it. No private company that wants to stay in business would throw away billions of dollars.

So the argument that privatization won't work doesn't isn't true.

Nigerians are always quick to jump at foreign examples and never consider their local situation. US senators have no limit on tenure, should we also apply same to Nigerian senators simply because it works for the US?

Anywhere in the world, electricity is a non competitive market, and consumers have no choice in who they get their electric power from. It is simply a function of location. This essentially puts the consumer at the mercy of the provider, but the Nigerian system does not have the check and balances required to protect the interest of the people.

Looking at the US, of the 3273 electric utilities, only 210 (6%) of them are private, providing 38% of utility installed capacity, 42% of generation, 66% of sales and 67% percent of revenue. They have essentially localized themselves in the few high density cities where the high population gives them the largest profit margin, while the rest of the country are catered for by the government owned entities, who are forced to deliver at poor margins as they cannot leverage the high density areas to lower their cost. The private institutions extort money from the people when opportune with about 50% increase in less than 15yrs, and when the pricing is unfavorable they end up in bankruptcy and require government funds to bail them out e.g. PG&E was bailed out with $400 million tax payers money. The absence of a national grid has also led to local black out in major cities in different regions including California, Texas and New York. All this in a system where things are suppose to work.

There is no question that we have a problem in our power sector, but it is ill advised to think privatization is the silver bullet that would save our situation, when it would only make a bad situation worse. Rather what we need is the break up of the three phase of the network, making each unit autonomous and sectioning the distribution network. The private sector can be brought in on the generation side, and even then the risks outweigh the benefits.

biina:

Nigerians are always quick to jump at foreign examples and never consider their local situation. US senators have no limit on tenure, should we also apply same to Nigerian senators simply because it works for the US?

Anywhere in the world, electricity is a non competitive market, and consumers have no choice in who they get their electric power from. It is simply a function of location. This essentially puts the consumer at the mercy of the provider, but the Nigerian system does not have the check and balances required to protect the interest of the people.

Looking at the US, of the 3273 electric utilities, only 210 (6%) of them are private, providing 38% of utility installed capacity, 42% of generation, 66% of sales and 67% percent of revenue. They have essentially localized themselves in the few high density cities where the high population gives them the largest profit margin, while the rest of the country are catered for by the government owned entities, who are forced to deliver at poor margins as they cannot leverage the high density areas to lower their cost. The private institutions extort money from the people when opportune with about 50% increase in less than 15yrs, and when the pricing is unfavorable they end up in bankruptcy and require government funds to bail them out e.g. PG&E was bailed out with $400 million tax payers money. The absence of a national grid has also led to local black out in major cities in different regions including California, Texas and New York. All this in a system where things are suppose to work.

There is no question that we have a problem in our power sector, but it is ill advised to think privatization is the silver bullet that would save our situation, when it would only make a bad situation worse. Rather what we need is the break up of the three phase of the network, making each unit autonomous and sectioning the distribution network. The private sector can be brought in on the generation side, and even then the risks outweigh the benefits.

As a developing country there is nothing wrong with nigeria looking at outside example of how the power situation is taken care of. I'm saying for one power company to supply power for nigeria. That is too much power to give to one company. But if a state wants to have its power done by a private company or state run company they should be allowed to. If some states agree to have a regioanlized power company they should be able to do so. I'm just tired of this NEPA/PHCN junk. we need to get federal government hands out because they have had their chance and have not delivered.

I dont see how you still believe that the fed. govt is capable of power generation after they have siphoned away billions in the name of bringing stable power. until political interests are removed from power, nothing is going to move forward.

What blackout are u talkin about? Where u getting ur info from? Which U.S. states have their government as the power company?

We need to decentralise power supply and all other utilities. Govt has no business running these things, it should be limited to setting, standards, guidelines and policies.

As a developing country, we need to be looking into the future, always nimble and ready to change direction with fast paced development. It is easier for the govt to enable each person generate their own energy or subscribe to an independent supplier, than be bogged down with mammoth and unwieldy utilities.
The only exception should be power supply to industry. Govt (local, state or FG) is best suited to supply this.
For residencial areas and the individual household, the govt should encourage (even subsidise) efforts in solar, wind, microturbine technology etc. Any shortfalls can be topped up by private energy companies.

We blindly copied the way things were done in the UK without giving a minutes thought to the fact that at the time of our independence, Britain was an extortionate empire; so like a dictatorship, it required strong centralisation of every controlling facility. We were neither an empire nor did we have anyone to extort, but ourselves.

Even advanced economies are beginning to realise that the centralised energy supplier system is not fit for purpose.

trueword:

As a developing country there is nothing wrong with nigeria looking at outside example of how the power situation is taken care of. I'm saying for one power company to supply power for nigeria. That is too much power to give to one company. But if a state wants to have its power done by a private company or state run company they should be allowed to. If some states agree to have a regioanlized power company they should be able to do so. I'm just tired of this NEPA/PHCN junk. we need to get federal government hands out because they have had their chance and have not delivered.

There is nothing wrong in looking at outside examples. In fact, either as individuals or as a nation, it is very good to learn from the mistakes of others, as life is too short to learn from your (or our) own. The problem is with blind and selective copying without any regards for the context. Each country would have made their own decision based on their history, circumstance, resources and objectives. We should be smart enough to analyze it in detail, using hindsight, and looking at examples from other developing nations and not just the developed ones.

The problem is not the size of NEPA, but the structure and its attachment to the FG. The utility needs to be made autonomous not privatized, and restructured to better highlight its shortcomings and improve transparency. People that shout privatization are often clueless about the problems that plague NEPA, nor are they aware of the consequences of privatization and/or local generation. Cost of electricity grows exponentially as you reduces capacity. A simple comparison of the cost of 15KVA from NEPA to running a 20KVA generator at 3/4 load for a month illustrates this
NEPA = NGN 3.4K while Generator=NGN 380K for only fuel and I have excluded the capital cost of buying the generator and maintenance & repair. that is over 10x increase in cost.

I dont see how you still believe that the fed. govt is capable of power generation after they have siphoned away billions in the name of bringing stable power. until political interests are removed from power, nothing is going to move forward.

I have not said that NEPA should remain in its current form, but simply disagree that privatization is the solution. NEPA should be split according to its function, with distribution and revenue collection further divided on region basis.

What blackout are u talkin about? Where u getting your info from? Which U.S. states have their government as the power company?

I am sorry but I dont have the patience to be putting up links. Google is your friend. You can start at the US EIA.
FYI nebraska doesnt even have a single private utility.

Beaf:

We need to decentralise power supply and all other utilities. Govt has no business running these things, it should be limited to setting, standards, guidelines and policies.

As a developing country, we need to be looking into the future, always nimble and ready to change direction with fast paced development. It is easier for the govt to enable each person generate their own energy or subscribe to an independent supplier, than be bogged down with mammoth and unwieldy utilities.
The only exception should be power supply to industry. Govt (local, state or FG) is best suited to supply this.
For residencial areas and the individual household, the govt should encourage (even subsidise) efforts in solar, wind, microturbine technology etc. Any shortfalls can be topped up by private energy companies.

We blindly copied the way things were done in the UK without giving a minutes thought to the fact that at the time of our independence, Britain was an extortionate empire; so like a dictatorship, it required strong centralisation of every controlling facility. We were neither an empire nor did we have anyone to extort, but ourselves.

Even advanced economies are beginning to realise that the centralised energy supplier system is not fit for purpose.

While i understand your disappointment in NEPA, your suggestions hint that you have little to no idea about power generation and delivery. That the Nigerian government has failed in its endeavor is not a closing argument that proves that government has no biz in utilities.

biina:

While i understand your disappointment in NEPA, your suggestions hint that you have little to no idea about power generation and delivery. That the Nigerian government has failed in its endeavor is not a closing argument that proves that government has no biz in utilities.

Sorry, but you are living in pre-history. Nobody thinks like you've outlined here anymore, you are all for copying the way others generate their power, while your targets are researching ways to decentralise and go green. The net result is that we will always be behind the curve and that has always been Nigeria's problem; from introducing assembly plants, to building refineries, all in the name of technology transfer that never happened. We always end up with outmoded technology, as wounded champions of copying, while others have rounded the next corner.
All over the West, individuals are given tax breaks and govt grants to install solar power/heating, wind turbines and other renewable energy systems; in some countries, they can feed any excess into the power grid and get paid.

I really don't appreciate dismissive people, it show's a mindset that isn't confident or is scared of learning. Since you believe in copying the US, here is a very extensive study by the US Department of Energy's (DOE) into decentralised energy supply (17MB) http://www.osti.gov/bridge/servlets/purl/477693-4CBo1C/webviewable/477693.pdf
It focuses on India's decentralised energy supply.

I really think the problem has been identified by the Acting President, shortage of gas. I listened to him talk about using coal to generate electricity. I really wonder why coal cannot be used to generate electricity for all the eastern states. Its appalling that Nigeria has abundant supply of coal yet its wasting away somewhere in enugu state. i dont have my statistics right but i once heard that higher percentage of electricity generation in the US and south africa is from coal. Petroleum and its derivatives are expensive yet that is what the Nigerian Government decided to use for all time electricity generation when other countries are looking for alternatives. Its sad that the nation Nigeria has no plan for herself not to talk of her citizens. We all know that failure to plan is already a plan to fail.

There are different ways of generating power, we can take a different approach to this problem. In reality we need up to 50,000 Megawatts.

first of all jonathan can not solve your electricity problem. and he has no clue to how to solve it. he read fishing.

the major issue facing nigeria is reform.   look at the satellite pictures. Jonathan would not return in 2011 if he does not solve it. Look the north does not want to be minority and the yorubas do not want to be cheated. this is the major issue. and both of them would not vote for him, if he does not listen to a solution that we have, which is to remove the yoruba, edo, delta and bayelsa state into benin republic. and he would not return if he does not listen. the yorubas would run a yoruba and a northerner  to solve the problem if he does not do it .

this is been honest with you. the yorubas would not return any PDP elected officer back to power if jonathan fail to solve it. the pdpd would not win one seat.  he should ask obsanjo . i think you people do not know the yoruba people and you do not understand the north.

www.nairaland.com/attachments/235324_fff91_JPGa13fe49920245c816f4b0ae661a31f0a

yeswecan:

There are different ways of generating power, we can take a different approach to this problem. In reality we need up to 50,000 Megawatts.

Exactly, we need to think smart and we can attain tremendous power output in very little time. Our problem is we keep copying and always being decades behind.
Other countries are getting rid of huge energy utilities, but we are planning on how to supply PHCN with more gas. We should do away with PHCN and leave energy generation and supply to individuals and private firms.
In the US, utilities are begining to get squeezed by decentralised power and are in danger of going extinct, here is an article from an expert http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2009/08/how-will-utilities-make-money-as-pv-continues-to-grow

The funny thing is, even if PHCN gets adequate gas supply, it will end up being bunkered to Niger, Benin, Europe and all callers. Private suppliers will care enough about their profits to be efficient.

An added benefit to decentralisation, is that in time of war, there will be no huge central power station to take out.

I hope Dr. Jonathan is also considering transmission and distribution. Coal power plant which are notorious for green house emission need to be built to subsist the HEP already in existence.

One wonders why the power of Solar energy has not been harnessed in the North?

Now we are thinking, why cant we have coal powered plants for the east and solar powered plants for the north.

Jonathan has identified d crux of d present failure in d power sector vis a vis d 6000MW and he has moved in d right direction by settin a target of 1bcf of gas per day frm suppliers.
PHCN has bin complainin abt dis gas issue but d oil coys hav bin sabotagin them by insistin on shuttin down gas supplies to enable their crude flow, we must all understand that its is bit by bit dat we solve a complex prob nd wen considered dat investments dat were supposed to be made in d power sector 25yrs ago hav not bin made routine maintenance have been skipped or shodily done we can then appreciate d efforts of this administration.
No mata how we luk at it d truth be said we are not ready 4 privatisation of d power sector and privatisation is a lazy way of tryin to solve d prob govt stil has a lot to do in d power sector b4 it can be put up 4 privatisation.
One question y do a lot of us believe in privatisation of d power sector but wld not give support to deregulation of d downstream sector of our petroleum sector?

marvix:

Jonathan has identified d crux of d present failure in d power sector vis a vis d 6000MW and he has moved in d right direction by settin a target of 1bcf of gas per day frm suppliers.
PHCN has bin complainin abt dis gas issue but d oil coys hav bin sabotagin them by insistin on shuttin down gas supplies to enable their crude flow, we must all understand that its is bit by bit dat we solve a complex prob nd wen considered dat investments dat were supposed to be made in d power sector 25yrs ago hav not bin made routine maintenance have been skipped or shodily done we can then appreciate d efforts of this administration.
No mata how we luk at it d truth be said we are not ready 4 privatisation of d power sector and privatisation is a lazy way of tryin to solve d prob govt stil has a lot to do in d power sector b4 it can be put up 4 privatisation.
One question y do a lot of us believe in privatisation of d power sector but wld not give support to deregulation of d downstream sector of our petroleum sector?

Deregulating the downstream sector is about deregulating the importation of raw materials we exported as finished goods, isn't it? That is about enabling theft and inneficiency, but we are talking about creating efficiency here. Don't mix things up.

The govt and PHCN know nothing about power generation, there is nothing further for them to do. They need to give way to experts and people who care enough about their profits to be efficient. Compare Nitel and the liberalised mobile phone system, the answer pops out!

No be lie

Jonathan has identified d crux of d present failure in d power sector vis a vis d 6000MW and he has moved in d right direction by settin a target of 1bcf of gas per day frm suppliers.

  how can gas be the problem, it shows you the lack of understanding of what is wrong with power supply in nigeria. you see why i say jonathan can not solve the problem.


people are going to vote based on one thing in 2011. which would be the fact the PDP have failed to carrry out reform in the last 11 years. It does not take 11 years to carry out reform. And this is how jonathan would be removed. If anyone had 11 years and did nothing. do you expect normal human to vote for them. No. Look with satellite pictures out. The north is concern about thier future. And they want to become majority, And you can see yar adua effort going with the benin repubulic president.   And that is what the north want and we yorubas, edo, delta and bayelsa too. And voting is either the north future, the yorubas, edo, delta and bayelsa future or Jonathan future. And I tell you, if he does not support what is best for the majority, if he rigs the election , they would remove him through a military coup and kill them all. he knows that I dont have to tell him. that is the truth.

@Beaf
Firstly, until our educational system is at the forefront of research and development,  Nigeria will always be behind the curve. that has little to do with PHCN, and more with ASUU and the Govt.
Its funny how you accuse me of preaching that we follow others, and to buttress your point you provide a research from a US firm on India (a report I doubt you read) and I wonder how much of India's power sector is now decentralized.? Keep in mind that India has over 5x our population
You want to deregulate the power sector  and put the nation at the mercy of private institutions, and yet I doubt you have done the due diligence to research the experience in various other countries.
Your funniest contribution was the suggestion of people bunkering Natural Gas. There is a difference between NG and LNG
Let us know when you have your 24/7 solar generation system.
People like you are the bane of the Nigerian society. You think you know what you do not know.

@wumiabo
The factors affecting coal v gas generation include
1. The Natural gas is already a by-product of our crude oil mining and while the coal needs to be mined.
2. Coal generates almost 2x the CO2
3. It is easier to transport the gas, than coal
I dont know the state of the coal mines in Enugu, but most communities will rather not have mining done in their backyard. I do agree that, even if as a backup, we should still maintain some coal generation systems. The good news is that transforming thermal station from coal to gas  and vice versa is quite feasible.

^
I gave the US example because you do not believe in the ability of Nigerians, you have been preaching that we copy others. Not only that, but you started out like some smug know-all dismissing decentralisation as nonsense, whereas that is the direction in which all sensible individuals and nations are looking.
Smug know-alls are the problem with Nigeria, they dismiss those who are talking sense, while talking bullsh!t and pulling us backward with all confidence.

Nigeria's power sector is already decentralised (even if in a negative way), everyone has a generator. Why not take advantage of this and replace most of the energy from generators / PHCN with FREE solar energy and bio-energy from food / human waste (biogas) or FREE energy from wind or microturbines? This is simple forward thinking commonsense. This firm generates power from waste in the UK http://www.selchp.com/
With so much of consumtion taken care of, govt will be much freer and nimbler to provide and plan for all important industrial power supply.

There is no greater insentive to the population than "FREE". We get several times more solar insolation that Europe, in fact, some parts of Northern Europe, it can be dark for months, in others daytime is between 10AM and 4PM. . . YET, they are leaders in solar energy use. All over the UK, there are solar powered lamps, railway utilities etc. But here in Nigeria, you're bullsh!ting people suggesting these things. Clap for yourself.
Practically every year, bar beach breaches its shores, wave power is another glaring example of FREE, easy to harness energy that is wasted in Nigeria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_power

That piece of reasearch I linked to is an example of the US (the most advanced country in the World) looking seriously at decentralisation from the rural Indian viewpoint. It destroyed all the arguments you made, I can provide you a thousand and one other links. Now you are going on about India having 5x our population, what has that got to do with power generation, is it easier to decentralise for a billion people than it is for 140 million? You shock me.

Then you go about picking on how I have used the term "bunkering". Petty.
Have you checked the true meaning of the word as against its use in Nigeria? When you find out, please take out a newspaper advert to correct all Nigerians, because you will be stunned that it doesn't mean illegal siphoning of crude oil, Mr Know-all.

---

Pelamis Wave Energy Converter

nigeria is near the equator and as such is prime of solar power, you have a desert where few people live, instead of complaining how you cant farm there turn it into a solar feild. you have a coast line - use tidal generators. a huge river- hydroelectric plants. hell even wind turbines. invest in bio-diesel. gasoline is not the solution to the problem, when it runs out where will you be?

U.S has natural monopoly on utillity companies. Even though they are not owned by govt, they are highly regulated. S/Africa has Eskom -govt controlled. France runs govt controlled utility company

Beaf 4get all this stuf nd principles even wit privatisation power probs wld not be solved, we can solve our problems in d power sector if our govt demands results d way Jonathan is demanding. This power prob didn't just start 3yrs ago if past govt had done a fraction of wat d present administration is tryin to do today we won't be complainin of power probs today, a child who isn't fed 4 a day cld still look good but if afta 3days d child wld be bad but if a week goes by if d child is stil alive feedin him wit d best of food dat day won't bring him back to shape it would have to take days of ensurin dat he is properly fed then wld u begin to notice improvements, there is need for us to be patient wit dis administration cos they are sincerely interested in d nation which administration has even bothered to acknowledge dat they fail on specific agendas but this one has admited dat they failed on target but wld improve nd get it right we hav bin able to hold them acountable and they have tried in their little way to be acountable, if PHCN hits just 5000MW u wil all 4get abt d targets but this govt wants to build institutions and wen u sit back browsin d internet remember dat u don't have d info d policymakers have that has made them not to seek dereguladtion in dis sector.
Beaf wat do u mean importin our raw materials I beg to disagree d downstream sector involves buildin refineries here and gettin them to perform so y are we averse to deregulatin d oil sector which may allow investors come in nd build refineries create jobs nd make d sector competitive and critically looking at it its beta d downstream sector of d oil industry be deregulated and d billions incured on subsidy used in developin nd solvin d probs in our power sector

Beaf:

^
I gave the US example because you do not believe in the ability of Nigerians, you have been preaching that we copy others. Not only that, but you started out like some smug know-all dismissing decentralisation as nonsense, whereas that is the direction in which all sensible individuals and nations are looking.
Smug know-alls are the problem with Nigeria, they dismiss those who are talking sense, while talking bullsh!t and pulling us backward with all confidence.

Believe in the ability of Nigerians to do what?
I do not preach blind copying, rather that we look into the approaches used by others and learn from it. There is no such thing as a know-all, as nobody know it all, but it is not too difficult to know a lot about a particular issue.
You talk about decentralization solving our problems, yet you seem to have no idea about the infeasibility of the approach in the Nigerian context.  I ask you how many countries have adopted successfully the decentralized power sector that you are preaching?
I still repeat that a decentralized power sector in Nigeria is nonsense. We have a problems that have clear solutions, we dont need to create new problems

Nigeria's power sector is already decentralised (even if in a negative way), everyone has a generator. Why not take advantage of this and replace most of the energy from generators / PHCN with FREE solar energy and bio-energy from food / human waste (biogas) or FREE energy from wind or microturbines? This is simple forward thinking commonsense. This firm generates power from waste in the UK http://www.selchp.com/
With so much of consumtion taken care of, govt will be much freer and nimbler to provide and plan for all important industrial power supply.

Not every one has a generator like you claim, nor can everyone afford to maintain one. If the individual owned generators were working for us, why are you complaining?
You talk about solar energy, do u know what the expected power output per unit area is, particularly  in the south? Have you thought about the capital cost and lifespan of the installation?
Did you think about how much power power you can generate from wind turbines, at what wind speeds they are feasible, and if we have such wind speeds in Nigeria?
Have considered the environmental and cost for the auxiliary items, particularly batteries, that go with this irregular sources?
Did you think about the status of waste transportation and processing in Nigeria before suggesting Bio energy and did you consider the efficiency of the system?
Do you know what a power profile is, the importance of peak to average ratio in power generation, and how the residential and industrial area complements each other, before suggesting you allocate one to individuals and the other to the government?
Which do you think is more important - industrial/commercial or residential needs? It is the industrial, and yet you want to allocate same to a government you claim is incapable of providing the needed supply?

There is no greater insentive to the population than "FREE". We get several times more solar insolation that Europe, in fact, some parts of Northern Europe, it can be dark for months, in others daytime is between 10AM and 4PM. . . YET, they are leaders in solar energy use. All over the UK, there are solar powered lamps, railway utilities etc. But here in Nigeria, you're bullsh!ting people suggesting these things. Clap for yourself.
Practically every year, bar beach breaches its shores, wave power is another glaring example of FREE, easy to harness energy that is wasted in Nigeria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_power

Free what? Will you get the solar cells for free? Do you know that the total average cost/watt for all this techhnology are much higher than fossil fuels, and even worse in a place like Nigeria when the NG is practically free?
All these examples you point to, where has solar been used as a primary source of power? Do we not have solar installations in Nigeria?
Wave power is unrelated to bar beach overflowing. Yet I doubt you have looked at the current state, pros and cons of the technology you are suggesting.

That piece of reasearch I linked to is an example of the US (the most advanced country in the World) looking seriously at decentralisation from the rural Indian viewpoint. It destroyed all the arguments you made, I can provide you a thousand and one other links. Now you are going on about India having 5x our population, what has that got to do with power generation, is it easier to decentralise for a billion people than it is for 140 million? You shock me.

For your information, demographics goes a long way in planning power delivery. The US has a region based grid system and each region is bigger than Nigeria. The problems facing India is different from that facing Nigeria, and also that facing large land masses like Russia and China. That you cannot recognize that transmission losses grow exponential when grid sizes exceed certain sizes is not my fault.

Then you go about picking on how I have used the term "bunkering". Petty.
Have you checked the true meaning of the word as against its use in Nigeria? When you find out, please take out a newspaper advert to correct all Nigerians, because you will be stunned that it doesn't mean illegal siphoning of crude oil, Mr Know-all.

Petty? you made a baseless accusation to back up your position, citing bunkering (which means to store) is a legitimate concern with Natural Gas, whereas in reality it is the opposite. One of the problems with NG is that it is almost impossible to store for transportation unless in liquefied form. You are not going to be carrying it around in tankers like fuel.

It is nothing personal, but I get pissed at everyone who are clueless about the power sector coming online to proffer solutions like they were experts in the field, while the only thing they know about the problem is that they dont have light at home. I am not saying people should not make suggestions (like I said earlier, nobody knows it all) but do not make declarative statements unless you know your onions. Example, someone raised a good point about the use of coal.

If you are still adamant on your 'decentralized solution', we can start discussing in detail with you clearly defining how it will be set up, and be ready to provide facts and figures to back up your position. Otherwise stop with the nonsense.

Ah Ah Biina!!Why are your ideologies so 60s!
How on the planet can you be against privatisation/decentralisation in the power sector in a country where Government has failed in every sector it has engaged in while the private sector keeps thriving! MTel is Government and Glo is private. Thats enough of an example!

First, the Government lacks the will, the structure nor the intellectual capacity to provide adequate power for the country. Over 10 billion dollars has been spent and we are still talking about 2700MW! Doesn't that tell you already that neither the Government nor PHCN would be able to provide the power we need?

Beaf and a couple other folks on here are pointing you to the future and you re arguing backwards!

The world is looking for ways to limit grid dependence, luckily we have already perfected the art of off grid living by powering our homes with  generators.
The government can take this further  by enacting legislation which would ensure that every newly built house would have solar roof tops and other possible sources of alternative energy.