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Nigeria: FG Needs $85bn for Stable Power
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Vanguard (Lagos)
25 June 2008
Posted to the web 25 June 2008
Ben Agande
Lagos
Nigeria requires $85 billion for it to attain sufficiency in power generation, transmission and distribution and make it one of the 20 leading economics in the world by 2020.
This amount excludes the N301.3 billion required to develop gas infrastructure to power the various power plants that are expected to come on stream between now and 2020 when the country would be expected to generate and transmit between 10,000 and 20,000 megawatts of electricity.
Submitting the report of the Presidential Committee on Power Sector Reforms in Abuja yesterday, Chairman of the Committee and Honorary Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Dr Rilwanu Lukman, said in view of the dilapidation in the power sector, there was the need for short, medium and long term plans in the energy sector to achieve total energy sufficiency.
Several years of neglect in the power sector especially the poor maintenance culture and inadequate manpower support, he said, had made the power sector "fragile and weak." Dr Lukman said the average age of all the transformers, generation stations and the substations in the country was 25 years which, coupled with the poor maintenance culture in the country, had made power supply epileptic and unreliable.
Throwing light on the recommendations of the committee, Dr Lukman said to attain any improvement in the power sector, Nigeria must embark on a phased improvement in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity.
Under the short term plan which the committee pointed out would increase the power generation from the present 1800 megawatts to 6,000 megawatts, the country needs an investment of $3.5 billion between now and 2009.
"For the short term, our aim is to optimise, stabilise and maintain the existing systems. There are a lot of megawatts that could be gained. We also believe, by so doing, the capacity of generation can be raised to 6000Mw. We also understand that currently, the transmission network cannot raise more than 4000Mw conveniently. So because of that, transmission and distribution network must be added to the system.
The short term plan is 18 months, from now to December 09," he said.
He, however, warned that even if such power was generated, the transmission lines in the country could only accommodate 4,000 megawatts and called for sustained investment in the area of transmission.
According to the chairman, "the existing stations would continue to be maintained as at when due. If you do not maintain it, what you have started with, you are going to go backwards.
"The Federal Government would release timely funds. The FG would complete all NIPP projects, assurance of adequate supply of gas. There will be no vandalism of power transmission and gas pipelines. For the medium and long term plan to be achieved, the short term plan must be successfully completed. These are the assumptions.
"Short term plan is primarily designed to address the immediate shortfalls both in generation and transmission capacity to achieve 36,000mw daily power. What we understood is that as long as these maintenance works are not started, more and more units are going to breakdown. So the first thing to do is stop the rot.
"We also emphasize the importance of optimising the new power stations so that the three new stations at Geregu, Omotosho and Oronshogbo are fully operational. "The grid is very weak, many of the equipment currently are the ones causing many of the power cuts across the country because they are old, they have not being maintained properly and they are aging. We also need to expand the distribution network to accommodate the new power that is coming, and the old power that had been there," he said.
On the medium term plan which will push the power generation to about 10,000 megawatts, the committee chairman said there was the need for the construction of at least two new hydro stations in the country while the various Independent Power Plants under construction are harnessed and possibility of using coal, solar and wind power generations are explored.
A proposed investment of N434.billion was suggested by the committee for this period which it said would take six years to achieve. The committee chairman deplored the lack of well-trained personnel to man the country's various power stations and called for the setting up of a National Power Plant Training Institute to cater for the need of the envisaged surge in the establishment of more power stations.
He said neither the country's universities nor polytechnics were equipped enough to provide the needed manpower in the energy sector, saying the setting up of a National Power Plant Training Institute would solve the manpower shortage.
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President Umaru Yar'Adua thanked members of the committee for the thorough job done and promised that his government would take immediate step to start implementing the recommendations of the committee.
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