A conference of African engineers has tasked the federal government to diversify its energy resources to include other sources such as hydro power, biomass, solar, the wind and tidal systems in order to attain energy sufficiency in the country.
The Conference also observed that though Africa is endowed with huge resources for renewable energy, meeting the enormous energy demand for development on the continent has been a challenge and urged African governments to develop the political will to harness renewable energy resources as well as imbibe energy efficiency and best practices to optimize energy demand.
At a press conference Wednesday in Abuja, Otis Anyaeji, president of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), who read the communiqué issued at the African Engineering Conference on Energy held recently in Akwa Ibom, emphasized the need for governments at federal and state levels to consider professionalism in appointments of heads of engineering based ministries, departments and agencies.
Stating that Nigerian engineers have been denied the opportunity to contribute to the infrastructural development of the nation, Anyaeji affirmed that Nigerian engineers are very competent and compare favorably with their foreign counterparts. According to him, the conference tasked African governments to strengthen human skills and infrastructural capacities in their various countries to handle renewable energy technologies as well as called on governments and the private sector to invest more on research and development required to improve efficiencies and bring down the cost of renewable energy technologies.
On electricity, he explained that the conference noted the crucial role of regulations in enhancing the reliability and sustainability of energy systems and observed that the African electricity market is still facing numerous challenges.
The communiqué noted the challenges to include, “inability of electricity generation companies (Gencos) and electricity distribution companies (Discos) to invest in the system and increase capacities, inadequate metering of consumers, several transmission bottlenecks, poor quality of services, and inability of the gas suppliers to make available gas to the power plants.
Another challenge mentioned is a lack of access and reliable energy supply to rural dwellers, which has undermined the economic activities in the rural areas while inhibiting the establishment of small and medium scale enterprises. This has escalated poverty levels despite high potentials for economic activities that will improve the nation’s food security, among others.
It further called on the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and other electricity regulatory commissions in African countries to strengthen their regulatory mechanisms for energy savings and efficiency in the market.
“The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission should use their powers to enforce the commitments made by the Discos on closing the metering gap as contained in their business plans during the privatization of the entities.
” Improve on the power supply for sustainability, the effective commercial framework for the supply of gas to power plants has to be ensured through formidable “Gas-to-Power Policy for sustainability of fuel supply”, the communiqué further read.
