₦airaland Forum

This lady said it all while responding to similar questions on another thread. Hopefully she'll come here and share more thoughts.

nuesaweso:
The business of privatisation of power generation and distribution is complex because it's multi-disciplinary. As someone rightly pointed out, a typical functional commercial power system will normally balance on the technical, commercial & legal tripod.
Technical - Covers choice of technology for generation, transmission, distribution, engineering related issues etc
Commercial - Finance (equity or debt), Capex, Opex, Metering, life extension etc
Legal - Conflicts management, liquidated damages, service credits etc.
Lastly, you would require some form of Regulatory body usually a Govt body (OfGem in the UK) which oversees the activities of private companies.

I won't expand on each of the emboldened above here as I'm sure there are many literatures out there covering that; but you can begin to have a feel of how many interfaces required to have a functional privatised energy sector. The mistake we all make is we focus only on the technical side.

Does america, russia and brazil use a national grid system? Why do we enjoy making simple tins difficult in naija sef?

All these countries do have some form of grid system. America has regional grid system and you would appreciate that due to the geographical size of the country, it's difficult (not impossible) to have a national grid system. Russia has a national grid system which is interconnected with Norway. They also have a sub-grid system that connects remote areas. These countries have nuclear power plant, and there is no way you can operate a nuclear power plant without a grid system.

A grid system offers your electrical network reliability and resilience. Imagine if the only generator connected to a city suffers an electrical fault or out for planned maintenance, how would you reconnect the city with some form of grid system? What I would expect is for us to move towards a smart grid system, which allows distributed generation to be connected at different voltage levels. We can deal with other technical problems like harmonics, Rocof etc later

Baba, Brazil has oil but abt 70% of dia power is from renewable energy - water. Abi is water and sun hard to find again in naija. Solar power can power d north becos d north has hot sun. Hydro power can power d south-west, south-east and south-south.

To me, its dat simple.

Baba, Nigeria could boast of almost proportional hydroelectric power - sure you've heard of Mambilla. Same problem, never works! For other forms of renewable power, our grid is just not robust enough and we would suffer more if we connect these volatile and intermittent renewable sources (wind, solar) to the grid. However, I accept that this could form part of the long term solution.

The reason I mentioned CCGT is because we all know we have readily available gas that can be monetised locally. You can get a new CCGT 1GW ready in about 24 months, and this can literally be "copied" & "pasted" around the country with the right infrastructure and site-specific modifications. For me, this is our short term fix. Also, CCGTs can be used for both base load & peak load unlike hydroelectric.

Nothing can be achieved in dis country if we all hav such a mindset.
My point is we don't need to reinvent the wheel or try to be too clever when there are cheap, proven and available solutions to our problem.

nuesaweso:
The business of privatisation of power generation and distribution is complex because it's multi-disciplinary. As someone rightly pointed out, a typical functional commercial power system will normally balance on the technical, commercial & legal tripod.
Technical - Covers choice of technology for generation, transmission, distribution, engineering related issues etc
Commercial - Finance (equity or debt), Capex, Opex, Metering, life extension etc
Legal - Conflicts management, liquidated damages, service credits etc.
Lastly, you would require some form of Regulatory body usually a Govt body (OfGem in the UK) which oversees the activities of private companies.

I won't expand on each of the emboldened above here as I'm sure there are many literatures out there covering that; but you can begin to have a feel of how many interfaces required to have a functional privatised energy sector. The mistake we all make is we focus only on the technical side.

Does america, russia and brazil use a national grid system? Why do we enjoy making simple tins difficult in naija sef?

All these countries do have some form of grid system. America has regional grid system and you would appreciate that due to the geographical size of the country, it's difficult (not impossible) to have a national grid system. Russia has a national grid system which is interconnected with Norway. They also have a sub-grid system that connects remote areas. These countries have nuclear power plant, and there is no way you can operate a nuclear power plant without a grid system.

A grid system offers your electrical network reliability and resilience. Imagine if the only generator connected to a city suffers an electrical fault or out for planned maintenance, how would you reconnect the city with some form of grid system? What I would expect is for us to move towards a smart grid system, which allows distributed generation to be connected at different voltage levels. We can deal with other technical problems like harmonics, Rocof etc later

Baba, Brazil has oil but abt 70% of dia power is from renewable energy - water. Abi is water and sun hard to find again in naija. Solar power can power d north becos d north has hot sun. Hydro power can power d south-west, south-east and south-south.

To me, its dat simple.

Baba, Nigeria could boast of almost proportional hydroelectric power - sure you've heard of Mambilla. Same problem, never works! For other forms of renewable power, our grid is just not robust enough and we would suffer more if we connect these volatile and intermittent renewable sources (wind, solar) to the grid. However, I accept that this could form part of the long term solution.

The reason I mentioned CCGT is because we all know we have readily available gas that can be monetised locally. You can get a new CCGT 1GW ready in about 24 months, and this can literally be "copied" & "pasted" around the country with the right infrastructure and site-specific modifications. For me, this is our short term fix. Also, CCGTs can be used for both base load & peak load unlike hydroelectric.

Nothing can be achieved in dis country if we all hav such a mindset.
My point is we don't need to reinvent the wheel or try to be too clever when there are cheap, proven and available solutions to our problem.

God Bless you my sister. I couldn't have said it better.
We need more educated opinions like yours in this country.
You may want to also contribute to this thread https://www.nairaland.com/2308462/buhari-govt-eyeing-lagos-template/6#33671990

OrlandoOwoh:
The so-called nation grid can not serve the whole country. This is the reason we have IPPs. What business does, the Olorunshogo Plant in Ogun State for example, have in giving power to Port Harcourt? Consider the distance and the MW. Distribution should be taken from the exclusive list and put in the concurrent or residual list. The just built IPPs should be acquired by the states that don't have their own IPPs.

I gave the example of Afam because I heard Afam is deliberately not generating to maximum installed capacity because the national grid cannot take the power (I can't confirm this but I tend to believe the story). So, the guy in ikeja may probably not be sleeping in darkness if this was not the case. Don't get me wrong because I am not asking for more money to be pumped into the grid. I just don't want us to lose that flexibility but yanking off an upper layer of connectivity as backup. Again I repeat, I am for 1000% decentralization.

But now consider this scenario: suppose Lagos alone needs more than 10 IPPs because of the share size of population and commercial entities. Who says all the IPPs have to be installed in Lagos? Lagos is even expanding into the atlantic ocean! Are we going to sacrifice schools and parks and possible further development just because of this when we have untapped land in Osun for example with less than a quarter of Lagos power needs. If Osun or Ekiti or bayelsa need 100MW for example, why not install 300 or even 500MW and transport the rest to Lagos through this upper layer? That way you keep the lifestyle in Lagos and also industries in Ogun going while generating employment in Osun/ekiti and improving their economy. This does not mean 8 out of the 10 IPPs that Lagos need cannot be installed around the Lagos state.

In summary: Retain the national grid as it is without pumping more money for now and concentrate on local generation for communities using the DISCos. The definition of community need to be clear - is it state, LGAs, LCDA, estates, streets etc). However, DISCos should be encouraged to generate more power so as to sell to other DISCos serving other communities that may need it if/when required through an upper distribution or transmission layer.

aresa:
The problem at the moment has to do largely with the inefficient and outdated transmission grid.
They should let the local communities take care of their power needs instead of the FG wasting time and years looking for billions of dollars to build power plants and some more billions of dollars to build a new transmission system all over the country.
The FG should scrap the transmission lines and build new and more effective lines from scratch. The new transmission line can transport any excess power from the places you mentioned to needy areas or even send it out to other countries for sale.

I don't think the local communities should handle this. Who will coordinate this? The local government chairmen? I believe this will be creating another mini FG in the various communities. Gov. Fashola was once credited to have said "government does not have business in business" and I completely agree with him. Let the discos handle this as a commercial venture. Nigeria is already covered by the various discos. But there may be need to reonstitute the discos to better serve the communities. Let give them power to generate and remove any bottleneck preventing them from getting finance from banks.

aresa:
LG level sounds good to me and in case of other states, they should do whatever helps their local situations...

National grid is ok for some kind of back up, but definitely not as primary system. In case of war with any other nation God forbid, they are going after your main or central transmission system to keep you in darkness, but with microgrids, they'll have to bomb out the whole country to knock you off completely...

Of course it has to serve as backup. That is why i propose focusing less on the national grid and pay more attention to local generations. But it still has a role to play.

OrlandoOwoh:
Does it make sense for a person in Ikeja to suffer power outage because wind destroyed a pylon that is in faraway Kainji?

Does it also make sense for someone in Ikeja to keep sleeping in darkness while there is excess power in Afam in Rivers state that cannot be pushed to national grid? better still, does it makes sense for someone in Mowe/Ibafo to be sleeping in darkness while their is power in Berger simply because we refuse to make room for that flexibility? What happens to the idea of the DISCO serving Berger to sell power to the DISCO serving Mowe?
Having said that, I am 100% for decentralization (generating power nearby to the people that need it), but I also believe flexibility and robustness should not be thrown out of the window.

aresa:
The idea is to let communities like Shomolu, Bariga, Ilupeju, Ikeja, Obalende and so on be their own disco or have their own power generating and distributing stations so the whole state can not go out in case of any unforeseen situation...

In fact, your analogy is directly supporting what you are against because you get into that kind of situation only with centralized transmission and this is the very reason why MicroGrid is gaining traction just to avoid what you just stated..

http://www.energybiz.com/article/13/06/microgrids-and-distributed-generation-will-change-our-energy-futures

I understand. That is why I asked earlier where do we draw the line - state level, LGAs, LCDA or at street level? Obviously every street cannot have a power plant and on the flip side of the coin, Lagos is "too big" for just one power station. But then, we can't just use Lagos as bench mark. There are over 700 LGA in Nigeria, so I don't think its economical to have 700 power stations. Some states will survive with just two or three power station while some may need up to ten or more. But my point is whatever the number of stations are in any state, there should be the flexibility to share power with other states/regions through a higher level of connectivity (i.e transmission).

TonySpike:
In addition to what you have said, these power plants can be integrated into the national grid later on when it becomes certain that they have excess capacity to extend their services to neighbouring states!

Exactly!!

Mynd44:
You still don't get it. Mini-grids is all about what you have said too. You know what area your plant will be serving, and you build transmission lines in that area alone.

So if one plant in Enugu can generate enough power to power the whole state, fine. But generating power in Kaduna and transporting it to Abeokuta is a huge waste of resources because of the transmission. The distance from the point of generation to the point of usage is reduced

Ok maybe we are saying the same thing from different angles.
BUT I still don't think we should abandon the existing transmission out-rightly. We have seen generators and transformers go up in flames. That can also happen to a local power station. The idea of national transmission is to create room for flexibility and maneuvering. Imagine something happens to Eko disco that is exclusively generating and serving Lagos. If anything happens to the transformer or generator without the flexibility of "sharing" power with the rest of the country, the entire state will be under darkness while their will be power in Mowe and Ibafo

I think the national grid should be left alone for now and concentrate on local/regional generation with the possibility of taking/pushing power from/to the national grid when it becomes necessary. Let us not get too carried away and throw away the baby with the bathwater.

Mynd44:
We don't need those. What stops Enugu from generating power from coal?

What stops the North from setting up solar farms and wind farms?

Gas can always be transported for small plants without pipelines.

Generate power where you need the power. We don't need those. What stops Enugu from generating power from coal? What stops the North from setting up solar farms and wind farms? Gas can always be transported for small plants without pipelines.

Develop powers where you need the power. No point distributing again.

But there is no where in the world where distribution is phased out.
Where do we draw the line? State level, LGAs, LCDA, Street? There is need to generate power in a central location within a region and distribute within that region. Except you are advocating everybody should generate their own electricity (which is pretty much what we have now with the numerous noisy i-pass-my-neighbours) there is no way you can eliminate distribution.
You are right, there is nothing stopping enugu from generating from coal and kano from solar. But every street in enugu cannot have a coal power plant! In the same manner, ever street in kano cannot have a solar farm. That is why there should be a central location in enugu/kano where the coal plant/solar farm will be installed and DISTRIBUTED across the state.

But I disagree with the idea of transporting gas in bottles to power plant. The recurrent logistics/efficiency/risk is just not worth it. Run a pipe to a central place like it is being done by some now. Generate the electricity and again DISTRIBUTE across the state or jurisdiction (if we are using discos that cut across a number of states)

Reference:
But what will power these numerous plants: fuel or gas. Fuel means a cobweb of pipelines, the eldorado of vandals, if it is gas then the risk around residential areas is better imagined. Trucking means gridlock and inefficiency especially when a plant may be drinking a truck an hour. There is a reason modern economies scale up. Efficiency rises with scale. How ever I agree that we can't start seeking efficiency.

In other words, we should fold our arms and resign to fate.
But why hasn't there been any incident to the supply line of the various companies that are currently generating electricity using gas? People living close to flour mills and lafarge that are generating from gas have not experienced any misharp till date. I understand the risk of vandalism with crude and petrol lines. But who is the fo0l that will go and vandalize gas pipeline? Will he put it in 20liter kegs or buckets?

Agreed that efficiency rises with size/scale but we don't have the grid to pump the electricity into. so the short/medium term solution in my opinion is decentralization.

Code213:
5%? hah!!!
I hope mine is giving me double figures o!!! Please enquire from your PFA if you can loan some of 'your money' , and get back to us so that we can follow suit!!

Double figures? Where you wan see that one? better go check well o. I calculated mine and its exactly 5.6%.
The statement showed my total contribution from the beginning and also shamelessly showed the total gain. A simple calculation of gain divided be total contribution gave me 5.6%. What a scam!!

aresa:
The first order of business for the incoming administration is to get rid of FG's power transmission monopoly.

Invest in generation and handing over their generated electricity to the FG's obsolete and worthless transmission grid and get back less than what they fed into it makes zero economic sense.

They should allow the DISCOs generate and transmit within their area of operation. The DISCOs are pretty much redundant and underutilized. Of what use are DISCOs with little or nothing to offer their customers in form of electricity?..

Thank you jare my broda. We don't really need this much dependence on the national grid. Although I will not be too eager to say it should be demolished out-rightly. I think Nigeria is basically covered by the spread of the various DISCOs. If there is any law preventing the DISCOs from generating power for there jurisdictions, such laws should be reviewed and relaxed. Of what benefit is a DISCO that doesn't get power to distribute to its customers? If we let the DISCOs generate a percentage of the power demand from their localities and augment with whatever they get from the national grid, we would have solved over 60% of our electricity problem without having to wait for another decade to fix the national grid.

carpenter:
USA

In several countries of the world, people produce their own electricity, consume some and sell the rest to the national or local grid.

So what is the primary supply to these national and local grid?
Selling back to the grid is done by individuals in US - I'm not sure about locality selling back to the grid.
How many individuals in Nigeria can generate enough for himself and still have enough to sell to the grid.
Decentralization is good and it is the way to go in my opinion. But going too deep is unrealistic, wasteful and unsustainable.
I think the discos have covered nigeria and if the decentralization is done on that basis we should be fine. Don't ask alimosho local gov. generate and then mushin also to generate. We will have 774 generating station do we has space for that? Will these be optimally utilized? I think we should just do the decentralization at the state level or at the DISCO level.

Mynd44:
This has been what Osinbajo has been proposing all these while. To be honest, we Nigerians don't really know the exact issue with power generation and the National grid.

If Nigeria generates anything more that 7,500MW and feeds it to the grid, everything is going to come down as our distribution lines cannot take that much power. We don't not have the facilities so building huge power plants is not the way.

What we can do is to generate the power in bits. As Osinbajo have said, generate power when it will be consumed so we don't spend too much time and money on distribution. Each Local government or LCDA depending on the consumption. Perhaps even a locality can come together to have a 10MW plant for that area and they are good to go.

To keep building huge plants and hoping to connect then to the grid is a waste that has proven to be the way not to go.

With this bit by bit module, each locality can look at what they have and use it to generate power, gas in most places, some can use renewable power especially in the North where there are huge opportunities for wind and solar power.

In the south, I will like to see a Badagry power plant Ltd. that wants to harness the Atlantic ocean through tidal power. At least the beaches there have not been tamed like the ones on Lagos Island so it is possible.

These bit by bit generation will culminate into something tangible but first we need legislation for it to work as right now, the power generation laws state that if you generate anything greater than 1mw, you have to connect to the grid. This is where policy, plans, entrepreneurship and dedication combination will come into play

I agree with you only to the idea of decentralization. But going Bit-by-bit to as low as local government generation is wasteful, inefficient and unsustainable.

A number of companies here in Nigeria are already generating their own power from gas. Why IPPs continue to hide behind lack of gas supply is still untenable to me. The only conclusion I have made is that there is no political will or intent to solve the power problem. If the pdp led gov. had allowed Tinubu to go ahead wit the enron power project, other states would have replicated it and we won't be where we are today.

It is only when it comes to IPPs that gas becomes an issue. Gaslink (a subsidiary of oando) and others have partnered with Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) and have been delivering gas to private companies. Some of these private companies are using the gas to generate power. Here is a small list:

Rusal Industries, Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom State get gas from NGC (Nigerian Gas Company)
http://www.rusal.ru/en/about/51.aspx

Alausa power Limited get gas from GASLINK - commissioned in 2013
http://www.oandoplc.com/oando-gas-and-power/subsidiaries/alausa-power-limited/

Flourmills
http://www.fmnplc.com/home/about.php

Lafarge already generating about 90MW from gas is looking to more than tripple power generation
http://www.ventures-africa.com/archives/49321

Our transmission line cannot support our national power need. We need to decentralise (even if it is partial decentralization). My proposal is similar to that of Tinubu. It is about empowering DISCOs to generate a bit of the power required for their respective territories to augment what they get from the national grid.
We already have companies generation power from gas in this country, so nobody should ask me how will the discos get gas. The question should be how we will relax the law preventing them from generating limited amount of power.

aresa:
Tinubu had boasted that “before long, Lagosians will have at least 270 Megawatts dedicated to Lagos State in addition to the Statutory allocation from NEPA that will make sure that at any given time, between 80 per cent to 90 percent of our electricity problems are solved.” “Now with the take-off of ENRON, Lagos State stands to benefit from this project,” Tinubu noted.

I have a similar hypothesis and I have not seen why it should not work. I stated this on another thread a few days ago.

gists:
I am pretty sure this perennial problem is more of political will than technical know-how.
:
:
I know for sure some private companies are already generating electricity from gas. I strongly believe this can be replicated by the discos. It is only when it comes to IPP that gas supply becomes an issue. The discos should be given a "partial" license to generate a fraction of the electricity demand for their area. All legislation barring them to generate electricity should be relaxed. Imagine kaduna disco or eko disco or phed generating about 30% of their respective demands. Add that to what is already being supplied to them from the grid. It should come to about 60%. At an individual level, this translate to about 16 hours of electricity for everybody.

Their is no miracle Buhari can perform if we have to wait for the national grid. The discos needs to be given a bit more role.

While reading, I was really happy and excited for the people of Biafra until I read this statement.

xmich:
“The only setback, which can discourage us, is lack of money to finance the project. You know dissemination of information is not cheap. We have a radio station called Voice of Biafra. We also have difficulty in financing it be­cause we think the people we are fighting for will appreciate the effort, but they have not bought into the idea of sup­porting the movement,” he said.
www.sunnewsonline.com/new/?p=118921

With 5 governors, deputy senate president and deputy speaker HOR and a good number of ministers for the last eight years, and considering how money play a major rule in Nigeria political space, I wonder how else these guys hope to find enough finance to pursue their course. And did i just read this statement "we think the people we are fighting for will appreciate the effort, but they have not bought into the idea of sup­porting the movement,"

Jokers like this make it difficult for people to take them serious. When the Igbos are truly serious and settle down on what they want, they will be a force to recorn with (Some what Biafra while some want to see an Igbo president of Nigeria).

Code213:
LOL!!! me sef go like to know o!!!! i have been wondering about that as well.

my broda no be small thing o. What I have with those guys can buy a small tear-rubber car!
It hurts to get turned-down by people you call friends who for reasons best known to them refuse to give you this loan - especially when you know they have it. So, I was just thinking how to get this short-time loan and the next thing I saw was a statement of account from my PFA in my inbox telling me I have x million. The PFA is not even ashamed to tell me my money has grown by a miserable 5% since I stated.
Their should be a way to talk to these guys to let me take a part of it for the next 6 weeks as loan. I don't mind signing an undertaking that I will return 100% the money in 2 months max!

ttomexy:
Have you been out of job for up to 4 month? if yes just approach your PFA, you will get 25%of the money

I am currently in a reasonably good job by Nigerian standard. That is why I am confident I will return the money (100%) and also sure I can raise the money on my own if I have more time. But I need money urgently - in the next 3-5 weeks so I am wondering if my PFA will listen to me. Sadly, no loan benefit where I work.

This may be funny but worth considering.
Seriously, I have some considerable amount doing absolutely nothing in my PFA. I just need to borrow some part of it and I can prove that I will return the money (which is still mine anyway) in about a month or two maximum?
I know this is supposed to be a safety net for me when I retire. But I need a "nano-short time" loan and going to the bank doesn't make sense in this case. I am 10000% sure I will return ALL the money (but I am sorry I cannot pay interest on my own money ). I need to borrow this money because of the urgency because ordinarily, I can raise the money myself if I have more time.
Can this be worked out?
Experts should please chip in a word or two.

This may be funny but worth considering.
What if I just want to borrow from it and return the borrowed money (which is still mine anyway) in about a month or two maximum?
I am 10000% sure I will return the money (but I am sorry I cannot pay interest on my own money ).
But seriously, I have some considerable amount doing absolutely nothing in my PFA. I just need to borrow some part of it and I can prove that I will return the money. Can this be worked out?
Experts should please chip in a word or two.

barcanista:
Obiano though Governor of Anambra state still enjoys his inalienable right to association. His position was his own idea and was never endorsed by the Igbo majority. Beside, he never went there to abuse Jonathan. Arthur Eze is a businessman, he went there for himself and not for Ndigbos. Visiting Buhari though is not all that bad, but what is said at the meeting is more important.

In the case of the APC consortium parading themselves as Ohanaeze, they made it appear like the "Ohanaeze" body did a 180 on Jonathan. Whereas they have been pro-Buhari/APC from the onset. I respect their right to association but their deceptive tactics is the purpose of the thread.

This is getting really getting annoying with all due respect.
When people say Lagos has Igbo men in her cabinet and questions which SE state can reciprocate that goodwill. Our friends are quick to say Igbokwe does not represent the interest of Igbos - an example is this guy I engaged during the April 11 elections

gbosaa:
Agbaje is not your problem, if there's any ethnic tension in Lagos which might affect the pattern of voting today, blame it on Apc and you guys should stop mentioning the igbokwe and nwabueze. Those names are not the face of Igbos in Lagos and have not contributed anything to the progress of Igbo people in lagos. Sack them, they won't be missed.

Fastforward to May, Obiano, the present gov of Anambra state held an opinion prior to the election which the majority of Igbos (at least on NL) related/relates with. Sadly, we are now being told it was his personal opinion and not share by the majority of Igbos. How about that of Arthur Eze? The man that suggested Ngige betrayed Ndigbo by joining Awolowo people at a PDP presidential campaign somewhere in SE. Now suddenly, after that public pronouncement which was covered by national dailies, we are now being told that it was his personal opinion.

The body (whether a fraction or not) named Ohaneze has come out and made a statement and yet again, we are being told it not from the general Ndigbos. The question now is who the hell is speaking on behalf of Ndigbos that will not be denied a couple of months down the line? At this rate, I doubt if a statement or position of the Obi of Onitsha is representative of the position of Ndigbos as it can easily be denied when conditions are not favourable.

I am definitely not qualified or even interested in advising anybody, but I find it hard to believe any group will be taken seriously if it keep this 2-face double-standard "hypocrisy".

anyaekekehinde:
I like your argument, by the time i entered the power industry, that question kept on bothering my mind. its not the same price that power plants buy gas that flour mills and other companies using GT buys gas for captive power generation. The price that those companies buy gas is way way higher than the price that gas fired power stations buys gas, if the power plants buys gas at premium price, tariff will go very high ooo.

I have no idea of how much each party pay for gas. I have this unfortunate believe that we can't eat our cake and still have it. If we need constant (relatively) electricity, we're gonna have to cough out the cash for it. Electricity is not cheap in most part of the world.
Having said that, why should the IPPs pay higher rate for the gas? Isn't there a regulatory body to challenge this seeming anomaly? Gov. Fashola keep boasting that he has taken the street lights and general hospitals in Lagos off national grid. I am assuming he is generating electricity from turbines, is Lagos also paying the high rate for gas?
All this still point to my first submission - the problem is lack of political-will (caused by corruption) and not lack technical know-how or availability of equipment.

Reference:
And where will they get the gas to fire their plants or the water to fill their dams, eh. It is all so easy to criticize but the main problem is feedstock. Even the plants located atop gas fhelds are not immune.

The problem with people like you is that you fail to see you're being fed with lies and will rather clap for mediocre performance while creating all sort of excuses for a failed government. Why not ask companies like flour Mills that are generating power from gas where they get the gas from. Or are they not in this same Nigeria?

Flour Mills has also made significant investments in power generation. The Company has 11 General Electric (GE) Jenbacher gas generators at its Apapa Mills, with a combined capacity of 30 megawatts. This has enabled the company to reduce the occurrence of production stoppages. In addition, the Company has a 30megawatt diesel plant at the same site to act as a backup in the event of any shortage of feedstock to the gas generators.
http://www.fmnplc.com/home/about.php

Imagine flour mills have enough gas to generate power. I bet EKO disco and many other discos can do same if given the right. i dare say gas is not the problem but political-will
while I will not rule-out saboteurs, it still boils down to political will to get the situation arrested.

I am pretty sure this perennial problem is more of political will than technical know-how.
This is the result of the fraudulent privatization that some saTANists wants us to celebrate and praise gej for.
What else can we really expect when the gov. sell public assets to their friends and allies as compensation for their roles in dirty politics just to hang on to power. I flew in to Nigeria some months back in the night and everywhere was dark - sharp contrast to what I saw when I left and got to my destination also in the night.

While privatization is the way to a lasting solution to this disgraceful problem, using it as a compensation for cronies can only produce more reduction in available power - how else do we explain lower available power when gej was on commissioning spree a week to elections.

I know for sure some private companies are already generating electricity from gas. I strongly believe this can be replicated by the discos. It is only when it comes to IPP that gas supply becomes an issue. The discos should be given a "partial" license to generate a fraction of the electricity demand for their area. All legislation barring them to generate should be relaxed. Imagine kaduna disco or eko disco or phed generating about 30% of the demand. Add that to what is already being supplied to them from the grid. It should come to about 60%. At an individual level, this translate to about 16 hours of electricity for everybody.

Their is no miracle Buhari can perform if we have to wait for the national grid. The discos needs to be given a bit more role.

georjay:
. Eternal damnation to saTANic agents....

Yeah. Very satanic and wicked people. can you just imagine - they should have completed the meal with a sachet of pure water to complete the ridicule. Anu ma nu - awon eranko de de.

rusher14:
Da Best!!

Thanks

OoduaVanguard:
And PDP lost the election this way....

OoduaVanguard stop misleading people. pdp did not lose because of that picture you posted.

This is the real reason why pdp lost

Trailblazer1:
you're getting the question twisted. Go through the op.

I'm still waiting for the day that I'm going to use those axioms and equation in real life

I use them every single day. Some directly (even sometimes consults my text books) while others indirectly - as a result of applied knowledge. Ask a practicing civil engineer if he doesn't apply bending moment or a practising chemical/process engineer if (s)he doesn't apply PVT equations (Pressure Volume and Temperature) in calculations everyday.

If you don't see the need to use your axioms, its either you're job description doesn't relate to what you studied or you're just not thinking deep enough. Its like a project manager having gone through the rigors of acquiring PMP certification saying (s)he doesn't apply cost/schedule/scope/risk management while practicing - simply because he doesn't have any need to specifically write "cost management" on any document.

I have always said this. Boko Haram is very easy to stop.
War is very expensive in every ramification - financial, human, logistics- name it.
The government knows this but they just simply chose to play politics with human lives.

Block the financial source to BH and it will die a natural death. Here is what I said back then:

gists:
I believe in justice and not pardon. Reason being that for how long will we continue to lay precedence that other terrorists may use as excuse.

The first and foremost thing we have to realize is that war of any kind is very expensive requiring massive financial support. WHY ON EARTH IS IT DIFFICULT TO CUT THE FUND TO BH? Get their sponsors arrested and 50% of the battle is won. All the military hardwares that BH uses to terrorize are not made in Nigeria which means they get big money bag sponsors who provide millions of dollars for their heinous operations. Cut that source of fund (like the US and all serious government will always try to do against any terrorist groups) and bh will slowly run out of steam.

Some high ranking CBN officer was indicted and no one has been arrested to date (I don't give a fvck if it is SLS). why was Ndume tried in secret? Sherif is still walking free and dining with the president! (contrary to your assertion sherif was 1st a pdp member before defecting to apc and had to run back to pdp since that is where he can get presidential protection - don't tell me you didn't hear sherif had a clash with tinubu).

So, if I was gej, this is what I would do to cut the funds to bh:

I will witch-hunt them with SSS and all other security apparatus so long they are guilty. OBJ did something similar with Alamieyeseigha in Bayelsa, Joshua Dariye of Plateau using EFCC. GEJ is missing a golden opportunity by not using the security apparatus to witch-hunt his enemies that are sponsoring BH. Don't you think SS; SE and SW will support him on this quest if he can prove such people are guilty? OBJ got a lot of accolades everywhere with EFCC because non of those "witch-hunted" was innocent.

It doesn't make sense, when your enemy is guilty of an offense and you are the commander-in-chief of the security forces, there shouldn't be any room for them to escape. Except of course the CnC hands are not clean

After cutting the funds to shekau shecow, then you can now talk of the regular hungry foot soldiers who by the way i think is the easiest to deal with. Just provide employment. Provide general economic empowerment for the readily available recruits into BH foot soldiers. mind you not the type the niger delta criminal got for the amnesty. If a man knows he can make a decent living without comitting suicide by joining a war he is bound to lose, he certainly will think twice before enlisting to join BH.

What? Are you kidding me?
I am almost certain the op has used touched-screen portable device before. How do you think those devices are made? Far more complex algorithms are simulated to test and fine-tune devices like that.
And what about airplanes? Do you think Boeing and Airbus just fix some aluminium sheets together and install turbine engines and people fly from Lagos to US in just hours? How do you think the airline companies come about the luggage weight limit for each passenger? Mathematical equations are used to simulate the aerodynamics of the plane for smooth flights, tyre pressure for take-off and landing, GPS and radio communication etc.
Do I need to talk about importance of such university knowledge as it applies to civil engineering? The third mainland bridge and the new 2nd niger bridge are not just some mixture of cement and stones. The bearing weight and stress from the waters are also calculated to determine the span, required strength and diameter/shape of the supporting pillars.

And like someone said, education obtained within the walls of the university is meant to sharpen your problem solving mind and not applicable only in engineering - very applicable in marketing, law, politics, and every human endeavor. It helps you (if harnessed and used like it should) think outside the box to solve problems.

Kai!! Nigerians!!
Did anybody bother to check the source the OP provided?
That article was written far back in december 2011.
I suggest we always check how current an article is to see if its still relevant before making comments.

Someone should please remind me which court case has Tinubu and his team ever lost in the last 16 years? Not even his out-going master could nail Tinubu in a code of ethics tribunal case.
[size=18pt]J[/size] imi [size=18pt]Ok[/size] echukwu [size=18pt]E[/size] gbeje (JOKE) is really kidding

chidexy:
This is the Elbe-Haval canal that links the Eastern city of Magdeburg to the river Elbe. Canals are an essential part of German transportation infrastructure network. Goods are moved between industrial hubs via these canals. There is also the ship lift at a place called Eberswald. A magnificent piece of engineering work

It is obviously a glory and lovely sight to behold. But maybe I didn't make myself clear enough. I was referring to the cost-benefit ratio as it relates to Nigeria because the OP asked if we can have this in Nigeria. Certainly the Germans can build and maintain this masterpiece without much fuss. But I am pretty sure it will cost Nigeria more than an arm, a leg and an eye to build and more importantly maintain this. If the sole purpose is to move goods efficiently, I dare say a modern rail system is more than sufficient for our needs at this time. We have had enough of white-elephant project.
Anyway thanks for the background info on the bridge.