Once again, the nation is in the throes of chronic power outages. All over the country, discontent reigns as households, and big and micro businesses count their losses. The situation is very pathetic as it is appalling because the only self-help – recourse to generators and alternative power generation plants – comes with astronomical costs. Particularly for businesses, the result of alternative sources of power is prohibitive and non-competitive production costs. Under a normal situation and all things being equal, national power generation capacity peaks at a little under 5000MW (system capacity). But this has now dropped to 3, 500MW, according to the Special Adviser on Gas to the Minister of Power, Mr. Frank Edozie. Perhaps the wattage could be much less. Edozie said “inadequate gas supply and frequent sabotage of pipelines contributed immensely to lack of electricity supply in the country”.
As plausible as official reasons being offered to justify persistent power failure in the country may seem, the incurable nightmare remains embarrassing and traumatizing to households and all categories of businesses. The development is symptomatic of an inept leadership; and that is putting it mildly. Nigerians have lived with power outages as an unwelcomed companion for decades. They have been fed with lies by the authorities; and the expectation of better days ahead came with the power reform template of the present Dr. Goodluck Jonathan administration. In Mr. President’s power reform roadmap, Nigerians were promised 14,000MW of electricity by December 2013. To make this a reality, new plants were purportedly constructed. The privatization of unbundled, 15 successor companies (five generation companies, GENCOs and 10 distribution companies, DISCOs) from the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) was accomplished and the firms were transferred to new owners on November 1, 2013. If the nation truly had a seamless privatization of the power generation and distribution chains, why has irregular power supply persisted? Why the hiccups?
An investigation by the Energy Desk of this newspaper made startling revelations bordering on systemic failure. Fact-finding visits to some of the power generation plants exposed different reasons for the inefficiency. While power generation by Egbin and Ibom power plants, for example, crashed as a result of low gas supply, in Kainji Dam, some major units of the plant, including 1G 5, 1G 6, 1G7, 1G8, 1G9, 1G10 and 1G11 were down because of poor maintenance or the lack of it. At the Jebba plant, ongoing rehabilitation of some of its units was said to be the cause of power drop. The Shiroro plant suffered a setback as its 411G1 unit was down for maintenance; and unit 4111G4 was out on account of water management. The Sapele, Delta and Afam plants also have one issue or another outside of gas shortage.
What seems obvious, therefore, is that the unceasing crisis in the nation’s power sector is largely traceable to human factor. It appears a combination of such factors as poor maintenance, corruption, inadequate planning and funding are holding the nation’s power sector hostage. The inability of Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), to meet power generating plants’ demand for gas, in a country with one of the highest gas reserves in the world, is inexcusable. Gas shortage has stalled various projects initiated by the government to wheel electricity into the national grid. It has stalled 5,000MW from the NIPP and 6,000MW expected from GENCOs. While the ineptitude in NNPC is drawing back government’s power reform drive, condemnable maintenance culture could be the root of the less than optimal performances of some other power plants.
If it is understood that effective and efficient power generation, distribution and transmission hold the key to the success of President Jonathan’s power reform project, the federal authorities must mobilize the needed resources to make operations at the three streams hitch-free. Power generation is highly capital intensive. A gas powered station of about 200mw is said to cost $300m. Perhaps, the government may need to re-evaluate the financial standing of the five power generation companies. It is only when power is available that the DISCOs will perform optimally. Nigeria should also look beyond hydro and thermal sources of electricity supply. Renewable energy sources like solar, wind, coal and biomass offer infinite opportunities to boost and stabilize power supply in the country.
The Transitional Electricity Market (TEM) that will ensure accountability and boost further investment in the electricity market; as well as make the sector more competitive, is too late in coming on stream. It has suffered undue delay. If it is a victim of the preparation for 2015 general elections, it shows how warped national priority setting has become in the country.
