₦airaland Forum

smartty68:
Just don't know what to type anymore

osahonmk:
The Nigeria Senate had a critical talk and review of the progress made after privatization of the Power Sector following a debate and discussions on a motion moved by Senator Dino Melaye (APC Kogi West), entitled “DISCOs, electricity consumers and the burden of over-billing.”

AS the Senate began discussions on the power sector in Nigeria, yesterday, a very gloomy picture was painted by senators who came to the conclusion that there was no hope of Nigeria coming out of its present power crisis.

The Senate, which noted that the power sector was in dire need of emergency response, said Nigerians would not have steady power supply because the distribution companies were bankrupt and could not, therefore, procure meters.

Consequently, the upper chamber asked that the privatisation of the sector be revisited without delay.
Senate chamber

Melaye, in his motion, said the burden of over-billing shouldered by electricity consumers in the country, even in the face of epileptic power supply by Distribution Companies, DISCOs, was totally unacceptable.

He also urged the Senate to mandate the Committee on Power to look into the astronomical electricity billing by DISCOs across the country and asked the Senate to urge the National Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, to call DISCOS to stop forthwith the practice of estimated billing.

As Daily Electricity Generation rises to 4, 197.50 MW

Melaye had at plenary on Tuesday, promised to present the motion after drawing the attention of senators to the exorbitant estimated billings being forced on consumers by the DISCOs.

In his contribution, Senator Ben Murray- Bruce, PDP, Bayelsa East, made it clear that with the manner the privatisation was carried out, operators in the power sector, such as DISCOs, were in serious difficulty.

Therefore, he recommended that the Senate prevailed on government to revisit the privatisation.

Murray-Bruce, who declared that Nigerians have a catastrophe in their hands as far as the sector was concerned, said those currently running the sector were technically deficient due to a lot of factors not envisaged at the time the privatization was executed.

He said: “They are technically bankrupt, unless we revisit the entire privatization process, unless we understand and dissect what went wrong, we will still get estimated billing.

“We have a catastrophe on our hands, there will be no power in Nigeria until the current structure is reviewed.

“Those who privatised the sector did not imagine that naira will be devalued from N160 to about N400 now. Those who invested in the business thought it was like a company where they will make a lot of money.

‘’I believe they only had enough money to pay the federal government and make the initial investment; they did not have the capacity to run a power sector company in a modern economy.”

In his contribution, Senator Mustapha Bukar, APC, Katsina North, while lamenting the ugly situation of the power sector, said that going by realities on ground in the sector, the country was sitting on an emergency without any sign of immediate solution.

According to him, though the nation has capacity for generation over 12,000mega watts, only 4,000mw have been achieved at any time, out of which 1,800mw are paid for by consumers, making the providers to be in perpetual indebtedness.

Senator Bukar, who is the Deputy Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, said: “The problem we have is the inefficiency within the system which we have actually so far not decided to address.

‘’ I will give you a small example: Nigeria has an installed capacity of 12,522 Megawatts of power. We have non-available capacity of 5,300; we have non-operational capacity of 3,180; meaning that the amount that is actually available is just over 4,000 Megawatts out of 12,500.

“We have transmission loss of 228, we have distribution loss of 447 Megawatts. At the end of the day, only 3,800 Megawatts reach the consumer. And we have commercial loss of more than 36 percent.

“So, what is actually being paid for out of the over 3,000 Megawatts is only 1,800 Megawatts. So unless and until we decide to look at these inefficiency within the value chain, there is no way we can have better electricity generation, distribution and also billing system in the country.



http://www.energywatchng.com/no-hope-nigeria-power-sector-senate/

Reference:
Well, I will tell you, one of the attractions of the process was the exclusivity of the business. Ask yourself why government decided to sell just 5 GSM licenses in 2001 and not 36, one for each state. And how successful the government has been at selling licenses for refinery development that it made more or less open to all and sundry.

So you support this process

The Government selling just 5 licenses had a lot of reasons.

At that time, how many companies were ready to go into telecommunication, how many people bided for the License?? In recent years, new licenses has still been given to new GSM operators.. So what exactly are you saying?


Refinery is a different ball game, even at that, some private refineries are currently being constructed, the got their license from the Government..

Some days ago, Ibe Kachukwu said he will resign if Nigeria is still importing PMS by 2019...

The Government only got very serious on rehabilitation of Refineries just in this Buhari's administration..
Let's watch and see

LordOfNaira:
You have said the truth, bro!!! Because I don't understand what could be the problem if not greed!!! Even countries poorer than Nigeria enjoy stable power supply and here these greedy people are making it look impossible to achieve!!!

magoo10:
Now that PDP is out of govt what is holding the dullards from transforming the sector? instead they will still blame PDP, useless and inefficient buffoons that call themselves apshit

bakynes:
The problem of Power is in the hands of the DISCOs because their facilities is unable to accept the power been transmitted by the Gencos. They have refused to invest into building new facilities, which will be able to accommodate the power supplied to them. If they can't accommodate common 4000MW, how will they be able to accommodate a bigger one even if Fashola builds a 10,000MW Dam.

When I heard in 2013 the GEJ govt wanted to privatize the sector, I was happy thinking they will invite foreign electricity companies (like Gazprom,GDF Suez etc) to come build their facilities, so we can choose who to patronize just like the Telecom industry today (MTN,GLO,ETISALAT etc) at least we are enjoying it now. Not knowing he was selling the old maribond facilities of PHCN to cronies to manage.

They signed a legal contract, so it cannot be easily revoked because of legal implications. So we have to wait till the contract expires before this present govt knows what to do next.

Mcowubaba:
So you support this process

The Government selling just 5 licenses had a lot of reasons.

At that time, how many companies were ready to go into telecommunication, how many people bided for the License?? In recent years, new licenses has still been given to new GSM operators.. So what exactly are you saying?


Refinery is a different ball game, even at that, some private refineries are currently being constructed, the got their license from the Government..

Some days ago, Ibe Kachukwu said he will resign if Nigeria is still importing PMS by 2019...

The Government only got very serious on rehabilitation of Refineries just in this Buhari's administration..
Let's watch and see

Jolar101:
They will open additional 40,000 emails to empower zombies(BMC) to be posting lies and blames every day doing nothing to improve and reduce high cost of living or price of goods in markets.

Let Wike to give all of APC members awards. They all need awards for their propagandists.

Reference:
And what is wrong with bringing the likes of EDF, Gazprom into the picture. I'm sure the present GENCOS will welcome that. Government can help to facilitate business the way an gynaecologist can stimulate pregnancy by bringing the sperm and egg together without violating the natural course of birth, i.e. existing contractual obligations. Afterall when did Etisalat join the big 4 and if memory serves me right a certain ECONET started the GSM journey in day 1. Things happen.

But like I've said before, it is the structure of the privatisation that was faulty and I believe that keeps investors, competitors, financiers and the likes out. Now listen. We should not have broken PHCN laterally into generation, transmission and distribution. It is not done that way in serious countries. Ask how the likes of EDF operate. They operate top down. That is the generate, transmitt and distribute to specific sectors. It is like asking MTN to own the satellites and up links, Glo the submarine cables, Etisalat the transmission towers and Airtel the switch boards and then expect them to invest and generate revenue. The system will be a mess. Calls will hardly ever come through and the blame game will be aplenty.

My take is this. Political expediency created a scenario where the whole country will be covered by power services at once. They wanted to avoid a situation where no investor will pick up assets in economically disadvantaged locations (you know them). Remember what happened in the GSM rollout. The private sector will eat the meat first and then take years to finish the bone. But thus is the right way investors think. No one will see Lagos and put money in Zamfara or Abakaliki first. They wanted to create a level service field from the get go and had no option that to break PHCN laterally. Politically right, economically disastrous.

What they should do now is to correct this anomaly by encouraging mergers across the three sectors so that one single entity generates power, tranmitts it to the place of optimum consumption and collect the dues directly so no one owes no one and no one rejects the services of no one. And the government should hands off transmission. They should not determine where power goes. If they want to 'feed the poor' they should incentify. Let the competition be top down and see how massive investment will begin to poor in. Which bank will give loan to a company that it cannot monitor let alone collect revenues on its behalf. There is no business trust within the system caused by the unwieldy, inefficient nature of its structure.

magoo10:
APC is associated with failure
the only thing filled in their brains is propaganda
they met power at about 4000 mega watts and what do we have today? darkness all over.

gunners160:
I am not surprise though after all the minister of power is as dark as charcoal and we are being ruled by senators without certificate. Oh! I forgot ,even the President presented a NEPA Bill WAEC Result

EarlOfWarwick:
They created more than that. Hundreds of thousands. They post. They like. They comment.

This is really deep. This Govt. is really fraudulent and wicked.

bestpunterever:
what has certificate got to do with stable power supply, why did your HERO, the PHD holder refused to make it stable if certificate were the requirement for Good governance.
Next time, u keep shut if u don't av any reasonable thing to give out from your brain.

Ashley86400:
There's no need for drama. .we all know Nigeria's electricity will never be fixed. .not cause they can't if they make plans but because they won't.
It's a two-folded issue. .
First, It was when we bought a new Firman gen last year (@30k,the same gen goes for 69k as at now -just a year's difference smh) and on the carton they wrote "Special designed for Nigeria" that I knew there was no more hope for this country's electricity because apparently these countries KNOW us. . .The same quote can be found on some Freezers too. .because they know our electricity is shit and they're making great business with it. .basically,Generator companies in Japan pay tons of money to the Nigerian government for the importation of their goods which come in all manner of sizes. .
Second,Nigeria's economy is so screwed up that buying of fuel is not optional. .depending on your lifestyle/status you end up buying hundreds/thousands of litres of fuel every year to just to enjoy electricity. Wether you use a car ,stove or gas. .you have to march up to a filling station constantly for fuel be it petroleum,diesel or kerosene. .if electricity suddenly became good. .people would deviate to using electric stoves and Generator users wouldn't need petrol and Genetators any more. .leaving ONLY car users at filling stations. . .how many Nigerians use cars in comparison with our population? Not up to a third of our population and that's also counting commercial vehicles . .in other words. .they would sell less barrels per day. .do you know how much would be lost if this happened? Fuel companies definitely wouldn't advocate for that.Now with that money securely flowing in as Generators and petrol are constantly being bought how will they focus on actually fixing our electricity which will divert the electricity money flow into the hands of electricity companies.
Unlike us these people don't mind using generators since they can afford it. . .
Moral of the story- If you think Nigeria's electricity has a happy ending. . .you haven't been paying attention.

bakynes:
We saying the same thing at least Obasanjo did a good job in the privatization of Telecom's.

He didn't sell NITEL facilities to cronies and call that privatization, he invited foreign companies to build their facilities and they determine the billing system.

That system is what Nigeria needs for the power sector, invite one or two foreign electricity companies to compete with PHCN that way we can choose who to patronize thereby creating competition and the competition will translate to improvement of service.

We might initially suffer the billing system of these companies but with time when they make their money they used in investing, the cost of electricity will begin to come down.

gunners160:
At least,he his better than a walking dead President that is bent on dying on a throne he never Worths. So selfish and self centered, no wonder he can't differentiate between Z and S.

Reference:
I said it before (when the plans were known), during the privatisation and now I am not surprised the thing is not working properly. But I fault your theory. You cannot run a public and private enterprise at the same time to serve the same public. They will destroy each other. The GSM project was a success because NITEL at that time was totally dead and hopefully it will remain dead. Apart from the faulty way PHCN was unbundled, another error that was made was the life support goven to PHCN in the run up by the Obasanjo, Yaradua and Goodluck governments. This I think generated mixed signals as to whether the privatisation was going to happen.

Look, if you want yo sell your car, it is good to renovate and tidy it up to get good value but if you then begin to drive it around and it is never at the car stand for inspection then you will equally have a tough sale. Ask yourself this question from an investors perspective. Are our refineries up for sale or not. Is Nigeria ready for private refining. Because since democracy returned it is one policy contradiction after the other. Today we want yo sell, tomorrow we want to repair. No one will do business in an uncertain market eith confused actors. It is either you want to sell your car or not. This is the scenario that played out in the power sector till Goodluck slammed the gavel down. By then the serious players were gone. The billions of dollars alegedly invested by past regimes has ended up not just being a waste of resources but has made the bride price of power so high only the money men of no character the only suitors.

bestpunterever:
did he use his certificate to fixed the electricity?
Answer yes or no, OR u get lost.

obailala:
When you feel a compulsion to always politicise everything along the lines of PDP vs APC, you end up exposing your own ignorance. Since you claim the power crisis makes APC a failure, let's go down the road and determine who the bigger failure is.

PDP spent over $24 billion on power between 1999 and 2015 ($16 billion by OBJ and $8+ billion by GEJ). But what did PDP handover to APC with regards to power supply?

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/183496-nigerias-power-generation-at-all-time-low-crashes-to-1327mw.html
http://allafrica.com/stories/201505250099.html

1327mw was Nigeria's exact power generation figure on the week when PDP was handing over to APC. Your statement of 4000mw is either out of ignorance or a deliberate attempt at misinformation. So now that you know the truth, and since you want to play the apc vs pdp game, kindly tell us who is the bigger failure?

bakynes:
The reason I wanted PHCN running side by side is because I know some citizens might not be able to afford those foreign electricity companies at the initial stage so the poor citizens can still manage the poor supplies PHCN will give them. PHCN could be sold to a citizen.

It is obvious Power is truly rocket science in Nigeria so it's better we invite foreign companies to take us out of these cesspit.

osahonmk:
The Nigeria Senate had a critical talk and review of the progress made after privatization of the Power Sector following a debate and discussions on a motion moved by Senator Dino Melaye (APC Kogi West), entitled “DISCOs, electricity consumers and the burden of over-billing.”

AS the Senate began discussions on the power sector in Nigeria, yesterday, a very gloomy picture was painted by senators who came to the conclusion that there was no hope of Nigeria coming out of its present power crisis.

The Senate, which noted that the power sector was in dire need of emergency response, said Nigerians would not have steady power supply because the distribution companies were bankrupt and could not, therefore, procure meters.

Consequently, the upper chamber asked that the privatisation of the sector be revisited without delay.
Senate chamber

Melaye, in his motion, said the burden of over-billing shouldered by electricity consumers in the country, even in the face of epileptic power supply by Distribution Companies, DISCOs, was totally unacceptable.

He also urged the Senate to mandate the Committee on Power to look into the astronomical electricity billing by DISCOs across the country and asked the Senate to urge the National Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, to call DISCOS to stop forthwith the practice of estimated billing.

As Daily Electricity Generation rises to 4, 197.50 MW

Melaye had at plenary on Tuesday, promised to present the motion after drawing the attention of senators to the exorbitant estimated billings being forced on consumers by the DISCOs.

In his contribution, Senator Ben Murray- Bruce, PDP, Bayelsa East, made it clear that with the manner the privatisation was carried out, operators in the power sector, such as DISCOs, were in serious difficulty.

Therefore, he recommended that the Senate prevailed on government to revisit the privatisation.

Murray-Bruce, who declared that Nigerians have a catastrophe in their hands as far as the sector was concerned, said those currently running the sector were technically deficient due to a lot of factors not envisaged at the time the privatization was executed.

He said: “They are technically bankrupt, unless we revisit the entire privatization process, unless we understand and dissect what went wrong, we will still get estimated billing.

“We have a catastrophe on our hands, there will be no power in Nigeria until the current structure is reviewed.

“Those who privatised the sector did not imagine that naira will be devalued from N160 to about N400 now. Those who invested in the business thought it was like a company where they will make a lot of money.

‘’I believe they only had enough money to pay the federal government and make the initial investment; they did not have the capacity to run a power sector company in a modern economy.”

In his contribution, Senator Mustapha Bukar, APC, Katsina North, while lamenting the ugly situation of the power sector, said that going by realities on ground in the sector, the country was sitting on an emergency without any sign of immediate solution.

According to him, though the nation has capacity for generation over 12,000mega watts, only 4,000mw have been achieved at any time, out of which 1,800mw are paid for by consumers, making the providers to be in perpetual indebtedness.

Senator Bukar, who is the Deputy Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, said: “The problem we have is the inefficiency within the system which we have actually so far not decided to address.

‘’ I will give you a small example: Nigeria has an installed capacity of 12,522 Megawatts of power. We have non-available capacity of 5,300; we have non-operational capacity of 3,180; meaning that the amount that is actually available is just over 4,000 Megawatts out of 12,500.

“We have transmission loss of 228, we have distribution loss of 447 Megawatts. At the end of the day, only 3,800 Megawatts reach the consumer. And we have commercial loss of more than 36 percent.

“So, what is actually being paid for out of the over 3,000 Megawatts is only 1,800 Megawatts. So unless and until we decide to look at these inefficiency within the value chain, there is no way we can have better electricity generation, distribution and also billing system in the country.



http://www.energywatchng.com/no-hope-nigeria-power-sector-senate/