There has been poor electricity supply in the country and recently, a former Minister of Power, Prof. Bartholomew Nnaji explained the possible reason for the unbearable situation.
Nnaji, now the Chief Executive Officer of Geometric Power, disclosed that lack of gas supply for existing plants, dilapidated or inadequate transmission and distribution infrastructure are some of the factors affecting the power supply value chain.
Nnaji, who spoke to a news outlet in his Enugu residence, said: “The problem of power supply in Nigeria is multi-faceted. In the power sector, we have generation, transmission and distribution. There are various issues along the value chain of power supply. The fuel (gas) supply is not adequate yet.
“There are issues of vandalism of gas pipelines which has grave effects on power generation.”
The former Minister spoke further saying:
“Nigeria has an installed power supply capacity close to 13, 000 megawatts on grid but 7, 000 megawatts available for supply, available because the generating system is available for supply.
“However, our capacity to actually boost the power on grid is about 5, 000 megawatts. “This means that two types of constraints make it impossible for us to put 7, 000 megawatts on grid, one of which is the gas supply, but mainly the transmission infrastructure.
“The transmission infrastructure makes it difficult for power to be supplied. And that’s a serious problem.
“Coming to distribution aspect, the infrastructure is dilapidated.
“There is also human factor problem on distribution such as connection inefficiencies, leakages, people stealing power, and all kinds of things done by people that make it difficult for efficient distribution, and also, the distribution companies themselves who are not investing in infrastructure which brings about inability to supply power.”
Nnaji said that if Nigeria aspires to become a mid-level economy, it needs to produce up to 100, 000 megawatts or more, which Brazil produces.
“I like to think of we paring ourselves against Brazil. It is a comparable country in terms of population. We aspire to be a mid-level economy.
“If we are going to be a mid-level economy, then we should clearly be talking about having the sort of power supply that Brazil has, which is over 100, 000 megawatts. If we are going to have 100, 000 megawatts of power supply, then we need to have transmission lines to match that capacity, but we don’t have it”.
Kindly drop your thoughts and opinions in the comment box below.
