The Federal Government on Monday said the electricity industry looses N24bn Monthly due largely to imported energy.
The government also lamented that despite huge intervention it has made in the power sector, that Nigerians still consume about 300 million litres of diesel monthly, most of which is used for power generation in industries, homes and offices.
Speaking at the monthly power sector stakeholders meeting in Abuja, Minister of Power,Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola said about 75 per cent of the diesel is imported, putting pressure on scarce foreign exchange.
Represented by Suleiman Hassan Zarma, the Minister of state in the same Ministry, he said, “Assuming 40% of the consumption is used for power generation at an average of price of N200 per litre, electricity industry is losing N24bn every month largely to imported energy.”
Fashola pointed out that,”Nigerians still consume about 300 million litres of diesel every month and most of this is used to power generators, adding that, “At the same time, there is about 2,000MW of electricity generating capacity that is unutilized.”
He remarked that the challenge of the moment before the industry is on how to deliver the untilised capacity to consumers who are willing to pay for it and are already paying dearly for alternatives.
Fashola however pointed out that,”The challenge of the moment before the industry is how to deliver the unutilised capacity to consumers who are willing to pay for it and are already paying dearly for alternatives.
He said,”Problems like this require creative solutions and we don’t have any time to waste. The N701 billion intervention program is a creative solution that appears to be having the desired effect for stabilising the gas and generation end of the electricity industry.”
Speaking further,he said,”If we can creatively and constructively focus on specific win-win projects, four policies provide effective tool to quickly resolve the challenges we now face. The first two, the eligible customer regulation and the meter service provider regulation are already subjects of detailed discussions and NERC regulatory action.”
“The eligible customer regulation allows large consumers to buy their power directly from Gencos and then sign with TCN and Discos to have the power delivered to them. To plan an orderly win-win implementation of this policy, the ministry is hosting a discussion with the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, and other interested large consumers of the policy on Tuesday.”
He said,”The meter service provider initiative can unlock investments in meters which is urgently needed to boost consumer trust and boost collection efficiency. Government seeks to apply that policy through private companies and local meter manufacturers to invest N39 billion in meters as settlement of a court judgement in favour of the government.”
Also,he said,”The distribution expansion program aims to rapidly construct 2500 Mega Volt Amp,MVA of dedicates 33 Kilovolt, kV lines and packaged substations to deliver unutilised power to target consumers and Discos. It is our hope that we will all put our heads together to serve the public effectively.”
HARRISON EDEH & CYNTHIA EGBOBOH
