FG to focus on alternate source of generation to improve power -Adelabu

The Minister of Power, Mr. Adebayo Adelabu, says the Federal Government plans to focus on an alternate sourceof generation to improve power supply.

Speaking in Abuja on Wednesday while interacting with power correspondents, Adelabu said that the plan was to de-emphasize the national grid and focus on distributed power.

According to him, power can be generated and gotten to consumers without passing through the national grid, adding that the best way to do this is to look at alternate source of generation.

“We want to use small hydropower; we have small dams that can generate between 500 kilowatts and five megawatts.

"So, we want to focus on that to generate power to identified locations embedded in the distribution network without passing through the transmission network because the capacity and stability of our transmission are still constrained, ‘’ he said.

The minister said that the government was also looking at solar energy, as there are a lot of investors who have given the country offers to invest in it.

Adelabu said that a lot of them were asking the government to give them Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) and evacuate it to the grid.

` No, it won’t happen now. Whoever wants to invest in solar power must identify who the off-takers are; our focus should be on off-grid power generation.

“We have proposals for offshore wind power in Nigeria, we have potential for this because we are a coastal country. We can have wind fans that we give us very clean power.

"That is what we want to do, which is why we concentrate on continuously improving the grid and expanding its capacity. We don’t want to wait; we want to generate power and distribute it to our people,” he said.

Adelabu said he has also ordered an investigation into the extension of the licences of electricity distribution companies, otherwise known as DisCos, by five years.

”When I came in, the licences I saw were for 10 years, 2013 to 2023. But along the line, when I spoke to the NERC Chairman, they said they had extended the licences for another five years, he said.

According to Adelabu, the problem in the power sector was multi-dimensional and cut across the value chain from generation to transmission to distribution.

He said that only one person can solve the problem of the sector, adding that all the stakeholders must be carried along to achieve the desired result.

“We are going to make an impact by turning the industry around and delivering improved power to the doorsteps of households, businesses, and industries," Adelabu said.

The minister said that desired results were not achieved in the sector because it has always been a top-down approach, saying, "That is from generation to transmission to distribution.”

Adelabu said that efforts had always been on establishing more power plants and getting power generated without so much emphasis on delivering channels.

“If our focus is on distribution, infrastructure improvement, and a little transmission, and with the volume of power we generate,we are going to double the delivery to the doorstep of consumers.

"So, what we want to adopt is a bottom-up approach, which is delivery focus; the less we generate, the more we are able to get it to consumers. So we are starting from the customer end, he said.

The minister also charged the media to report objectively, adding that they were partners in achieving the mandate of the present administration of delivering stable power to Nigerians.

“Communication is key in anything you do. no matter how hard you work and you don’t communicate in the right quarters nobody will know what you are doing, ”he said.