Consumers knock FG for setting fresh power supply targets

Nigerians have knocked the Federal Government for its fresh promises which include generating 10,000 megawatts of electricity by 2016.

The public criticisms followed a statement made by the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, that the Federal Government had shifted its earlier target of generating 6,000MW of electricity before the end of 2014 to this year.

Nebo also said the Federal Government expects to GET up to 10,000MW by 2016 and 12,500MW by 2017.

In reaction to the statement, a cross section of Nigerians who spoke to Power Talkback, expressed disappointment with government’s failure to ensure stable power supply in the country or keep to its promise of 6,000MW by the end of 2014, at the very least.

Some of the respondents also accused the Federal Government of continually shifting its targets in the power sector.

Meanwhile, a report published earlier this week said the country was currently losing 2,042.2 megawatts of electricity due to gas supply shortage and poor water management.

According to the report, the 411 G2 and G4 units of the Shiroro hydro power plant were currently losing 300MW, while the loss of 1,742.2MW was attributed to gas supply shortage at various legacy gas-fired power plants, including the National Integrated Power Project plants.

The information on the loss was contained in the daily broadcast of the Transmission Company of Nigeria obtained by ONE of our correspondents on earlier in the week.

A respondent, Mr. Matthew Oyedeji, said it was unfortunate that the Federal Government has so far failed to provide stable power supply in the country in spite of its recent privatisation of the sector.

Oyedeji, therefore, accused Nebo of deceiving Nigerians, adding that the Federal Government has had nothing to show for its previous promises.

He said, “You can see how the Federal Government has been shifting the goalpost; it’s not a sign of good leadership. There have been promises after promises but a few months before the target DATE, government will shift the date again.

“How can a country like South Africa be generating about 45,000MW and Nigeria will be struggling to generate 4,000MW. To START with, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa which means we should looking at generating 80,000MW. But rather, we are HERE talking about 6,000MW which government could not even achieve by the end of 2014.”

A resident of Sokoto, Mr. Ibrahim Olanrewaju, also blamed the Federal Government for the poor power supply in the country, saying it would still fail to MEET up with the new targets.

He said, “I was in Ilorin, Kwara State and Ibadan, Oyo State recently and now I’m back in Sokoto State; I can tell you that in all these places, power supply is terrible. I get such unfortunate reports from other parts of the country, which shows that there is no part of the country that is left out when talking about poor power supply.

“I can assure that you that by the end of 2015, the 6,000MW target would be shifted to 2018, the target for 2017 would be moved to 2020 and the target for 2017 would be shifted to 2022. It’s not a curse; it’s what our government knows how to do very well. It’s like we lack the capacity to get these things right like other countries of the world.”

On the online platform of the The Punch, there have been similar comments knocking the government for its incessant promises and assurances which it has failed to MEET up with. Some of the commentators also condemned the epileptic power supply in the country in spite of the electricity bills being paid by customers.

An online commentator identified as Gbenga, wrote, “I’m very angry, what kind of unseriousness is all this?”

Another commentator, Mide Midey, said, “Like I’ll always say, fix the electricity generation problem and Nigerians would fix the rest . We’re that resourceful and resilient. We just need that ‘stepping stone’ – stable electricity.”

Emmanuel Kalu, one of the online commentators, said, “It is absolutely crazy that we continue to GETforecast that are never met. We continue to hear about vandalism and disruptions. Has it occurred to our Energy minister to demand that electricity generating companies have reserves of gas to operate for at least TWO months in case of gas shortage or vandalism?

“Most well operated companies have backup upon backup, you can’t continue to depend on constant supply of gas each day. It is time the government mandated these GENCOs to develop capability to store their gas for (up to) TWO months.”

According to Ben, “With near unlimited reserves of gas, any loss of power generation can only be attributed to incompetence and corruption.”

He described Nebo’s attempt to explain the situation as “simply futile.”

Nebo, had said, “We have an outlook for 2015 to 2017. People are saying you people said you will do 6,000MW, yes! We have the capacity standing, we now have the gas standing and we are going to do that shortly within this year. But beyond that; by 2016, we expect to GET up to 10,000MW; and by 2017, to get 12,500MW.”

The mid-January statistics obtained from the ministry showed that peak generation on Wednesday was 4,405.6MW; energy generation, 4,000.63MW; and the energy sent out was 3,914.60MW. Peak demand was, however, put at 12,800MW.

On gas pipelines vandalism, Nebo also said the country lost an average of 1,000MW in 2014 as a result of the activities of vandals.

The AES barges 202-205 and 207-211 in Lagos are currently losing 288MW due to gas-related problems, while the Geregu NIPP GT 21 and 23 units have lost 290MW.

According to the TCN, the Rivers IPP GT1 is losing 160MW, while the Ihovbor GT2 has a deficit of 112.5MW.

The Omotosho NIPP GT1 and 4, and Sapele ST2 units are said to be losing 240MW and 70MW, respectively.

The Egbin ST1 and 3 units have capacity to generate 660MW, but are currently doing 467MW; meaning a loss of 193MW.

The Omotosho Gas GTI, 3, 5-8 units have a combined capacity of 228MW, but are doing 146.2MW; thus recording a loss of 81.8MW.

Also, the Olorunsogo Gas GT1-4, 7 and 8 units, with capacity for 228MW, are generating just 161.1MW and losing 66.9MW due to gas shortage.

Peak generation for the country as of Tuesday was put at 3,865.4MW, while 3,331.5MW was the figure for off-peak generation.

Source:Punch Newspaper.