By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Engineer Abubakar D. Aliyu has blamed the kidnapping of some expatriate workers in Zungeru in Niger state for the delay in the completion of the Zungeru Hydro Plant.
He also revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari is eager to see the full implementation of the National Mass Metering, an initiative which he said has seen the rolling out of one million meters already.
The Minister who was speaking at the Weekly Special Briefings coordinated by the Presidential Communications Team on Thursday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja disclosed that the Chinese workers are not currently working at the
Zungeru Hydro Plant because some of them were abducted at the site.
Said he: “It’s unfortunate that the insecurity in some parts of the country has affected the delivery of the Zungeru Hydro Plant project because some persons were abducted by bandits and have not been released”.
He however expressed his optimism that the project will be delivered before the end of the present administration, adding that several activities are going on in the power sector across Nigeria.
Engineer Aliyu who used the occasion to brief the State House Correspondents on the current status of the Presidential Power Initiatives (PPI) and other key projects being undertaken by the Ministry also provide further updates on key collaborations between the Federal Government and the State Governments in the implementation of some of the major power projects in Nigeria.
According to the Minister of Power “Despite the constant communication of 4,000 MegaWatts (MW) of Power being talked about, the actual figures are as follows:The Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) delivers Grid Power,Captive Power and Embedded Power to the tune of almost 8,000MW daily NOT 4,000MW and has an installed capacity of almost 18,000MW not 13,000MW”.
Explaining further Engineer Aliyu said: “Much of the improvement to 8,000MW has occurred under the Buhari administration (through positive industrial policies driving captive industrial power investment and improved grid stability) although we continue and must continue to work to improve the performance of the Grid”.
The Minister who was at Special Briefing with the departmental heads of the Power Ministry gave an outline of the major focus of the PPI using key indices namely:
i. Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) power baseline and Nigeria’s daily power consumption.
ii. Grid Interventions.
iii. Service Based Tariff Update.
iv. DISCO Performance Management.
v. National Mass Metering.
vi. Eligible Customers, Bilateral Contracting and Off-Grid initiatives.
vii.Recent Power Delivery Challenges.
On Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) power baseline and Nigeria’s daily power consumption, he explained that the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) consists of Grid Power, Embedded Power and Captive (Industrial) Power.
Said he: “It is important for Nigerians to understand that all of this Power is governed under the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC)”.
The Minister revealed that: “The split of the power that the NESI delivers and has installed are:
1. 28 Grid Power plants with Installed Capacity of 13,000MW and Operational Daily Capacities of around 5,000MW”.
According to him: “These include Power Plants like Egbin, Ughelli, Geregu, Kainji and others;
2. 266 Captive Power plants (mainly industrial > 1MW) with Installed Capacities of 4,000MW and Daily Operational Capacities of around 2,500MW”.
“These include the Dangote Cement Capacities in Obajana Ibese (400MW), and NLNG’s Bonny Island Power Plant (240MW) amongst others. These are never captured in the statistics but are part of the NESI and form our industrial load for jobs. In the future many of these plants will integrate to the grid, in fact some of them supply power to communities they occupy;
3. 16 Embedded Power Plants with 549MW of Installed Capacities and 190MW of Daily Operational Capacity”.
“It should be noted that these numbers are not static and can shift up and down between Installed and Operational Capacities based on demand and operational factors”, he concluded.
