Indeed, for
Nigerians to enjoy electricity this year, all hands must be on deck going by
the experts analyses. The Federal Government, according to them, should
urgently implement the power reforms and strictly monitor the operators (the
Distribution companies, Generation companies and the service firms) to comply
with the rules of the game. The consumers on their end also may need to
endeavour to play their role by paying electricity bills promptly and
discourage energy theft and meter tampering.
Available
statistics from the Discos however showed that the government incurred the
highest debt profile to electricity firms to the tune of N45 billion, as being
owed by the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Electricity
consumers have been groaning under the new electricity tariff (MYTO 2015), but
also believed that their power needs must also be met to justify the increase.
Besides,
installation of prepaid metres is major area of concern of the consumers who
have been largely extorted by some corrupt officials of the Discos. Meanwhile,
the Discos are now worried that the present policy of the Nigerian Electricity
Regulatory Commission (NERC) would not encourage investment and might
jeopardise their prepaid meter installation plans.
The
Executive Director, Association of Nigerian Electricity Distribution Companies
(ANED), Otunba Sunday Oduntan, who
raised hopes that the Multi Year Tariff Order 2015 (MYTO 2015) would herald
positive development in the sector, said there are still some factors in the
regulations that might hinder the desired level of growth.
He listed
the challenges in the sector to included; inadequate generation, transmission
and distribution capacity; poor and neglected transmission network, ageing
distribution network; massive power theft; and vandalism; uneconomic gas prices
and inadequate infrastructure for gas transportation, exchange rate factor and
insufficient CAPEX, among others.
Justifying
the need for NERC to increase capital expenditure (CAPEX) benchmark for Discos,
Oduntan said the benchmark of N50 billion set for the Discos yearly is grossly
inadequate to meet the expected improvement, because the Discos will need about
N78 billion to meter about two million customers alone, not considering other
areas of investment.
He also
urged the government to create conducive environment for gas generation; fund
useful TCN infrastructure projects that Gencos & Discos need; implement
legal process to execute theft and vandalism sanctions with enforcement such as
establishing fast mobile court and jailing of offenders.
To combat
the problem of ageing and poor cultured workforce, he said the industry needs
to increase capacity building; inject young new persons; training and
equipments. Also he suggested that customers, public regulatory, legislative
and government training should be given priority give better understanding of
the new industry, while NERC and lawmakers should implement strong sanction and
enforcement.
It is
however on record that Nigeria is presently among the lowest power generation
counties in the world and far lower than other African countries. The rule of
thumb for any developing industrial nation stated that at the least of one
gigawatt (1000MW) of electricity generation and consumption is required for
every one million population.
Facts showed
that other countries such as Algeria with population of about 40 million has
about 11,000MW generation; Egypt – about 90 million population generates
24,000MW; United Kingdom with about 30 million population generates 80,000MW;
Germany with 30 million population generates 120,000MW, South Africa with 60
million population has 40,000MW and Nigeria with 160 million population
generates a paltry 4,000MW.
This shows
that there is huge deficit. We have not yet started and that is why we have low
customer satisfaction. With the ideal rule of thumb Nigeria with a population
of 160 million should be generating about 160,000 MW.
A Power
System Professional from the United Kingdom, Idowu Oyebanjo, said NERC was weak in its regulatory functions and
has used wrong methodology in arriving at the new tariff.
“A
significant portion for the charges paid by consumers is the cost for losses.
Therefore one expects that the baseline values to be used would be determined
as accurately as possible. However, in arriving at the charging methodology
used for the Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO), NERC got it all wrong. Baseline
levels of losses were wrongly determined leading to over/under estimation of
charges to consumers. This is what happens when you put square pegs in round
holes,” he said.
He applauded
the abolition of fixed rate and the meter installation directive, which he
called a ‘blessing in disguise’.
“This
of course will force all distributors to aggressively pursue the metering issue
(if NERC performs its duty),” he stated.
An
electricity consumer, Muyiwa Adeboye,
said the new electricity tariff is not justifiable, but enjoined the
electricity firms to upgrade their service this year especially as the new
tariff kicks of February, 1, 2016.
He decried
the poor attitude of Discos to fault clearing and especially the need to
replace the ageing transformers scattered around the country.
Adeboye
said: “They really have a lot to do. I will be
disappointed if at the end of this year, Nigerians are still complaining about
poor power supply. The TCN should also brace up to meeting the prevailing
challenges, the network capacity is too low and needed to be upgraded. All
these should be given proper attention and not only electricity tariff at all
time.”
The Director
General , Bureau for Public Enterprises, Benjamin
Dikki, decried the rate of power losses, saying until the Discos are up and
doing and able to make their investment commitment to revive the ageing facilities,
the losses will continue. He said the private sector cannot solve the problems
overnight due to the level of rots over a decade, adding that government also
has to create an enabling environment to make the business bankable and enable
the operators access funds, which will in turn improve the functionality of the
entire value chain.
There have
also been allegations that many of the local meter manufacturers does not have
capacity to produce the required standards of meter by the Discos, Dikki
enjoined the manufacturers to upgrade their capacity and strive hard to meet
the required specification of the Discos.
Minister of
Power, Works and Housing, Barrister Babatunde
Fashola (SAN), has declared that a major agenda of his administration is
continuous public engagement on tariff collection and debts, power generation,
maintenance, ancillary services, dispatch orders and discipline. (Source:
Guardian)
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