The Federal Government (FG) on Monday said the improvements made in the power sector since the enactment of the Electricity Power Sector Reform Act (EPSR) in 2005 and the Road Map for the Power Sector in 2010, were being undermined by issues like gas constraint, Right of Way, vandalism, non-cost reflective tariff among others.
It said the challenges have led to liquidity in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) and subsequently inadequate power to meet demand.
Speaking at the opening of the fifth edition of the National Council on Power (NACOP) in Abuja, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Power, Fashedemi Temitope said NACOP was to this end, organized to stimulate the interest of stakeholders at all levels of government and private organizations in the Power Sector.
According to him, this will help generate and articulate ideas towards the development of the industry with a view to formulating sustainable policies and initiatives for improved service delivery in the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).
He explained that the Council is expected to design an action log to track the implementation of the decisions and directives at the meeting and ensure policy initiatives that will make available, sustainable power supply within the shortest possible time.
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“It should also fast track Government’s effort in diversifying the energy mix, promote renewable energy sources from solar, wind, biomass, hydros and coal to power, increase electricity access to unserved and underserved pre-urban, rural areas or areas with difficult terrains as well as strengthen the existing partnership in the sector,” he said.
Also, he said given Nigeria’s enormous energy resources, creating an enabling environment is a critical component in the realization of the 30:30:30 target which seeks to make available 30GW of electricity by year 2030 with 30% of the energy mix coming from renewable energy sources.
In his welcome address, the Managing Director Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) Engr. Sule Abdulaziz said in line with its bid to enhance grid visibility, it has successfully deployed a network automation solution designed by its engineers for real-time grid monitoring and operations at the National Control Center (NCC).
“This stop-gap solution will help in grid management pending the completion of the new state-of-the-art SCADA/EMS network.
“The contract for the SCADA/EMS network being funded by the World Bank has already been awarded,” he added.
In the same vein, he said:”we have started the deployment of the Automated Meter Reading (AMR) and Meter Data Management System (MDMS) to enable the Market Operator to have unrestricted access to meter data on a near real-time basis, and ensure data integrity, system availability and security, detect tamper events and outage occurrences and calculate feeder loading from interval data and read generator capacity meters among others.”
He further disclosed that the TCN took delivery of twenty-two brand new power transformers; spare parts and other critical equipment which were delivered to TCN Central Store in Ojo, Lagos State.
“The stockpile of equipment in the store is the highest of such in the history of TCN.
While some have been deployed to ongoing substations projects, others will be stored for upgrade and maintenance works,” he said.
He maintained that their availability will help to further minimize downtime in the grid and ultimately realize the country’s goal of ensuring stability and reliability of the grid.
However, he lamented the recurring incident of vandalism stating that funds meant for grid expansion and routine maintenance are constantly being deployed to clean up the act of vandals.
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