deor03 , you are wrong or you did not get me. KV means kilovolt. tomorrow, they also make you a minister, what did you read yoruba
see the article from guardian.
http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/energy/article01//indexn3_html?pdate=280508&ptitle=Celebrating%20one%20year%20of%20governance%20in%20darkness,%20Nigerians%20groan&cpdate=290508Celebrating one year of governance in darkness, Nigerians groan
By Yetunde Ebosele, Taiwo Hassan and Sulaimon Salau
AS the nation prepares to mark the first year anniversary of President Umar Musa Yar'Adua's administration in office under the new democratic dispensation, Nigerians may continue to wait endlessly for an improved power supply, even as they have to celebrate the day with the use of generating sets and candles or face the wrath of power interruptions.
At inception of office on May 29, 2007, the President promised to declare a state of emergency in the power sector, the resolution of the government to achieve this feat has remained a mirage. The about 140 million population of the country now has less electricity than they had in the pre- Ya'Adua era.
As Nigerians were expecting the declaration to come into fruition, the President shocked every one by embarking on a probe of the over N16 billion expended on the near comatose sector by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Obviously perturbed by the huge amounts expended on power projects without any improvement, he declined further investment in the sector until the actual amount spent was ascertained.
Energy, power inclusive is one of the seven-point agenda of the Ya'Adua's administration. Unfortunately, no concerted efforts have been made to improve the power situation in Nigeria.
Instead of formulating new policies aimed at improving the lots of Nigerians at all levels, or better still improve on policies of the past administration, the Yar'Adua's administration has spent a good part of the past year undoing what the previous administration did.
Reacting to the inactive nature of the present leadership in the country, Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), recently said, "Yar'Adua is not enthusiastic about governing because he didn't fight to come to power. The result is a dull style of management with no vision and no direction."
From the situation of things, it could be deduced that the major problem militating against effective power generation in the country can be traced to lack of adequate infrastructural facilities to transport gas to existing power stations including the new ones which depend solely on gas.
In a move to tackle this problem, the Federal Government through the Chief Economic Adviser to the President, Tanimu Yakubu, had estimated that Nigeria would need about N117 billion to establish three central processing facilities for gas production in the country. The facilities to be located in the Niger Delta, are to process upstream gas, extract liquefied petroleum gas and transmit dry gas to the domestic market.
The facilities, when constructed, according to Yakubu, would ensure efficient delivery of natural gas to the entire domestic market for power generation and industrial development. He lamented that the power sector was left for 10 years without any funding, which led to the dilapidated state of its distribution networks. He attributed the shortage of gas to lack of integrated planning between gas production and electricity generation.
The public sector funding and private sector investment was projected to achieve 6,000, 10,000 and 16,000 mega watts by 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively. Other key targets and goals to be achieved in the short-term plan as being projected by the government, include reduction of technical and commercial losses estimated at between 40 per cent and 50 per cent of electricity generated.
Raging controversies over the approval of money and delayed implementation of the power plant projects have left every patriotic Nigerian in a confused state.
Nigeria has about 6,000 megawatts (MW) power generation installed capacity but currently down to about 3,000MW compared to 25,000 MW needed in the country. Despite Nigeria's huge power generation and
consumption profile, poor maintenance culture brought the national grid to near total collapse, basically the problem of power supply was not limited to the generation side as transmission and distribution arm of the power sector also had a very rough and fragile status.
To effectively unearth the alleged anomalies that characterised the award of the many power projects during the Obasanjo's administration, the National Assembly, specifically the House of Representatives had set up a special committee to investigate the shoddy deals with a view to bringing erring parties to book.
The committee, under the leadership of Ndudi Elumelu, had invited all parties involved in the alleged mismanagement of funds under the guise of project execution to a public hearing to say their side of the story.
Besides, the committee had also conducted a tour of the various sites of the projects in the country. During the public hearing and the subsequent tour, Nigerians were shocked at the many anomalies that heralded the award and execution of the power projects.
From cases of unaccounted funds, unqualified companies, to lack of due process in the award of the projects and bare project sites among others, Nigerians are disturbed by the misfortune that has bedevilled the power sector.
The Reps' inquest into the failure of the sector brought many dignitaries in the past administration before public glare as they were made to appear before the committee to explain their roles in the award of the various phoney projects.
Dignitaries such as former Minister of Power and Steel, now Governor of Cross River State, Mr. Liyel Imoke, former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, among others appeared before the committee, while former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his deputy, Atiku Abubakar, shunned appearing before the committee with Obasanjo claiming indisposition as an excuse for his failure to appear.
Instead of physical appearance, Obasanjo, who claimed to be "slightly ill," rather made available to the press a statement explaining his role in the power projects' approval.
Obasanjo's explanation of the state of power situation under him was logical and prima facie, but was not clear if it will stand the test of time when confronted with other facts available to the probing committee. Yet his explanation was also full of socio-cultural and political sermons which he, Obasanjo, failed to live by and a deliberate distortion of facts in order to avoid acknowledging his political adversaries.
Obasanjo claimed in his statement that in a period of 18 years (i.e. between 1981 and 1999) since Jebba, Shiroro hydro plants and Egbin Thermal station were completed under President Shehu Shagari, there had been any serious investment in the sector despite astronomical increase in electricity consumption.
He said on assumption of office in 1999, his administration failed to grasp the full nature of the power crisis hence they underestimated the needed solution for the first four years and when they finally got grasp of the full problem, they discovered that it was not a quick-fix thing, as the investment required was so huge that each new power plant would require a minimum of three years to complete.
Besides, Obasanjo submitted that all the money spent so far could only complete the projects half-way, urging the Yar'Adua's government to pay the balance to get the projects completed.
The most disturbing part of the statement was when the former President insisted that "without paying this balance, the nation cannot enjoy the benefits, hence continued nationwide blackout."
The existing IPPs were expected to contribute 750MW by 2007 while on-going projects to account for 1,462MW by 2007 and 4,544MW by 2010.
A new vision for the power sector in Nigeria was envisaged to include about 15,000 kilometres of new transmission lines, this development however, prompted government in 2002 to award contracts totalling $1billion for three gas-fired plants at Omotosho in Ondo State, Papalanto and Geregu in Kogi State. Four of the power stations commissioned at the tail of Obasanjo's administration were to contribute 1,588MW to the national grid. The power stations located in Geregu, Kogi State (414MW), Omotosho Thermal plant in Ondo State (335MW), Papalanto in Ogun State (335MW) and Alaoji in Aba, Abia State (505MW) were to provide the figures written against their names.
Obasanjo also initiated about seven power stations to run on gas otherwise known as Integrated Power Projects located in various communities of the Niger Delta. They include the Rivers State power plant (100MW), Gbaran/Ubie plant in Delta State (250MW), Sapele power station, Delta State (1,020MW ), Ikot Abasi thermal plant in Akwa Ibom state (300MW), Eyaen thermal power station in Edo state (500MW), Egbema thermal station in Imo state (350MW), Calabar thermal power in Cross River (500MW).
Others are on-going Niger Delta integrated projects to contribute 1,315MW by 2007 and 2,624MW by 2010. Proposed Joint Venture IPPs to contribute 876MW by 2007 and 2,790MW by 2010.Other IPPs would
contribute 510MW to the national grid by 2007 and 1,365MW by 2010.
In a swift reaction to the state of the sector, Nigerians have called on President Yar'Adua to commence construction work on the projects, while investigations go on. This was based on the promise of the President that he wasgoing to declare emergency in the sector to facilitate its development.
Examining the past one year of the current administration, stakeholders who could not hold their breath, have scored the President low, expressing fears that the Federal Government may fail to achieve its Vision 2020 without a viable power supply to boost industrialisation.
President General of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Mr. Peter Esele said: "Now, we will say Yar'Adua is one year old fine. But I am looking at it from a composite perspective. That we have been under PDP government for nine years. And nine years are enough to at least address some of these problems like power. Nine years are enough for government to ensure that we have adequate supply of power. Talking about the real sector, I will say how can the real sector improve or grow when there is no power. So, if you ask me, I will say the real sector is going into extinction. It is surviving. And those that are still in operations live on generator.
"And when you notice what is going on now, getting power for an hour or two is grossly insufficient, as some of them virtually run their generators for 24 hours in a day.
"We pay our taxes, and we expect government to provide all these infrastructure because that is what we have government for. For government to pool resources together and then solve the problem that will serve as a catalyst for the development of the society and the country.
"You and I will agree that infrastructurally, we are not there. And that is why sometimes I laugh when we talk about this Vision 2020. Because if you talk about 2020, you are looking at the 20th biggest economy in the world which is a great feat to be achieved.
"Now, the government says it will create 10 million jobs in 2011, and we are in 2008, that means we have three more years, which means on the average, government wants to create 3.3 or 3.5 million jobs in a year. If the President can do that, we all will be very happy. But if you ask me what is on ground towards achieving that, I am scared and worried. Because there is really nothing on ground for that to be achieved," Esele said.
Meanwhile, the World Bank has attributed the high cost of investment in Nigeria to electricity crisis. Mr. Steven Dimitriyev, the bank's Senior Private Sector specialist, said Nigerian enterprises still face hostile environment characterised by high indirect cost, which depresses value added.
"Electricity crisis is the most important infrastructural bottleneck in Nigeria today. It is the main driver of Nigeria's high indirect cost. Unreliability of electricity costs an average 10 percent of sales yearly to a typical Nigerian firm. All types of firms experience power outages and 85 per cent of them own generators, this is higher than any of Nigeria's competitor countries," Dimitriyev said.
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