Govt to unfold fresh national roadmap on access to power

• Engineers raise expert group on infrastructure ranking
THE Federal Government plans to unfold a national roadmap on access to power that will define the strategy, identify the requirements, and begin the process of providing energy to the corridors of Nigeria without access with an energy source that best fits their requirements and geographical setting, the Minister of Power, Prof Chinedu Nebo has disclosed.
   The Minister stated this Monday, in Abuja during the meeting of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) Presidential Expert Group on developing an infrastructural ranking and scorecard roadmap for Nigeria.
   This comes as the President of the NSE, Ademola Olorunfemi, said the infrastructure ranking and scorecard report of the Society would enhance competition among the several levels of governance in the race for economic improvements and also assist them to improve policy, regulation, planning, provision, operation and maintenance of their infrastructure stock.
    He explained that the infrastructure report card will not be structured to be a prescriptive document, but will be produced as a guide on choices and investment decisions that policy makers need to take in order to accelerate economic development.
   In his address, the Minister of Power identified transmission as the major weak link in power generation in the country saying the transmission network is too weak to carry generated power.
   His words: “The Transmission network is the life-blood of the entire electricity eco-system and currently it is proving to be a weak link in Nigerian electricity supply industry. Transmission is the only domain in the electricity supply value chain that still remains under the control of the Federal Government. The government hired a management contractor, Manitoba Hydro of Canada, to manage the day-to-day affairs of the company.”
   He admitted that improving electricity transmission has not been easy even under Manitoba’s leadership, adding, “the existing transmission network which currently consists of 330 KV and 132 KV power lines are weak with high energy losses. Nigeria has one of the highest transmission losses in the world; this is partly because the average age of the transmission equipment is over 30 years, the consequence of neglect of transmission infrastructure. One of the jobs MHI has to do is to fix these issues in a timely fashion to allow for energy to be efficiently dispatched through the system to the distribution networks. The transmission network is also suffering from the same demon of vandals as the oil and gas infrastructure network.”
   To bring the transmission network up to the expected capacity, Nebo said a minimum investment of $1 billion a year over the next few years to meet current demands and position itself towards global competiveness.
   And to bridge the financial gap, the Minister stated that government is considering several options at wooing private sector participation and investment in transmission with the option of recouping investments through wheeling charges.
   While lamenting that only about 50 per cent of the population has access to power, the Minister hinted that Manitoba and TCN are discussion with an encouraging number of potential investors towards widening the access.
   Prof Nebo also said efforts are on to expand the local content of power generation in the country.
   He explained: “Going forward, it is expected that this local content policy will address the issue of ensuring that local content is sustained and developed in such a way that it is globally competitive, responsible, and meets our strategic interests. This would cover local sourcing and manufacturing of power equipment and supplies, participation and utilization of human capacity resource of Nigerians, enhancing the competitiveness of and increased participation of local players in the power industry through increased partnerships and collaborations with foreign players.”
   He also blamed the inadequate generation of power on shortage of gas, saying many of the power plants built to provide power are only able to utilize a fraction of their installed capacity. Of the original six power plants that were privatized, there is none that is functioning up to seventy percent of installed capacity.