Senate bemoans inadequate power generation, sets 100,000MW target

As Nigerians continue to suffer untold hardship as a result of epileptic power supply, the Senate on Tuesday bemoaned inadequate power generation and transmission.

Specifically, the Senate said it is aware that Nigeria ranks amongst the lowest in electricity availability per capita in the world.

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 It consequently charged the Federal Government to target the achievement of 100,000 megawatts of installed power capacity to commensurate with the size of the nation’s economy. 

The Senate blamed the existing deficiency in infrastructure on the current 330kv and 132kv generation capacity caused by transmission constraints and lack of data acquisition system.

To achieve near power efficiency, the lawmakers projected a 100,000 megawatts capacity to the Federal Government.

The Senate insisted that the target is achievable if government utilises the country’s natural endowments to fuel its power needs by mix of energy sources such as natural gas, hydro, coal, wind and solar energy.

The legislature as well advised the Federal Government to liaise with other nations for illumination.

Consequently, the Senate has resolved to constitute an ad-hoc committee to investigate the problems of power generation, transmission and distribution in Nigeria.

It also urged the Federal Government to devise power generation models that are embedded at economic and industrial clusters, hinging around regional grids that are semi-autonomous.

The Senate proposed to the Federal Government unbundling of Nigeria’s power distribution companies into smaller units to be more manageable for optimal performance.

These followed a motion by Senator Chukwuka Utazi (Enugu North) on the need to address Nigeria’s power problems.

According to Utazi, Indonesia with a population of 267 million people has an installed power capacity of 60,000 megawatts and a generating capacity of 42,465 megawatts.

Also, he said Brazil, with a population of 211 million people has an installed capacity of 167,000 megawatts and a generating capacity of 101,363 megawatts while Philippines, with a population of 107 million people, has an installed capacity of 20,055 megawatts and a generating capacity of 16, 271 megawatts.

 “Mexico with a human population of 131 million people has an installed capacity of 75,680 megawatts and a generating capacity of 53,653 megawatts. Egypt with a population of 99 million people has an installed capacity of 42,000 megawatts and a generating capacity of 31,24l megawatts.

“Turkey has a population of 81,916 million people, an installed capacity of 88,178 megawatts and a generating capacity of 57,292. South Africa has a population of 57 million people, an installed capacity of 51,309 megawatts and a generating capacity of 34,978 megawatts.

“Morocco has a population of 36 million people, an installed capacity of 9,754 megawatts and a generating capacity of 6,393 megawatts, while the USA with a population of 330 million has an installed capacity of 1,100,000 megawatts and a generating capacity of 717,710 megawatts. In comparison, Nigeria has a population of 200 million people with an installed capacity of 12,500 megawatts and a generating capacity of 4000 megawatts,” he informed.

Utazi further said various zones of the country are naturally positioned to take advantage of energy mix and renewables.

He said the Northern part of the country with vast expanse of land can tap into large solar farms while the Southern parts of the country with significant reserves of natural gas and coal can generate power from same, and added that both the North and South have large water bodies that can still be dammed for hydro.

Utazi recalled that at the time of the power sector privatization in 2013, the objective in privatizing the power distribution assets of Nigeria was not to achieve highest financial bids, rather its goal was to get capable companies that can achieve the lowest Average Technical Commercial and Collection losses (ATC&C) within five years, to invest in and take over management of the distribution companies.

He further stated that during the bidding for the distribution assets, bidders needed to have two capacities – financial Capacity to invest in modernising and reinforcing the infrastructure, and technical capacity to partner with reputable international power distribution companies.

But he said unfortunately, neither of the capacities were used by Government when it selected final bidders and handed over the distribution assets.