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Nigeria needs 160,000MW to meet national electricity demands

By Sulaimon Salau
08 January 2016   |   12:31 am
The nation’s aggregate electricity need has been estimated at about 160,000 Mega Watts (MW) to satisfy the local electricity demand, even as indications emerged...

• Discos decry N50b benchmark for CAPEX
• Metering all consumers in one year not feasible Chief Executive Officer, Association of Nigeria Electricity Distributors, Azu Obiayo (left); Managing Director, Benin Electricity Distribution Plc, Mrs. Olufunke Osibodu; and Executive Director, Commercial, Abu Ejoor, at a press conference in Lagos.
[/caption]The nation’s aggregate electricity need has been estimated at about 160,000 Mega Watts (MW) to satisfy the local electricity demand, even as indications emerged that the Electricity Distribution Companies (Discos) may not be able to meet the one year deadline set by the Federal Government to meter all consumers in the country.

This revelation came on Wednessday, when the Executive Director, Association of Nigerian Electricity Distribution Companies (ANED), Otunba Sunday Oduntan, reviewed the operations of the Discos in the post-privatization era, while assessing the growing profile of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) in Lagos.

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 said Nigeria is presently among the lowest power generation counties in the world and far lower than other African countries.

According to him,“the rule of thumb for any developing industrial nation is that at the least one gigawatt (1000MW) of electricity generation and consumption is required for every one million population,”

He gave comparism of 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,” he said.

Rolling out the numerous challenges to the sector’s growth, the ANED chief said the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) also needs to review the capital expenditure (CAPEX) benchmark of N50 billion set for the Discos yearly, because there was need for more investment to boost infrastructure in the industry.

According to him, the approved CAPEX 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 therefore, suggested that the NERC should remove the Credited Advance Payment for Metering Implementation (CAPMI) meter scheme expenses from the total CAPEX to allow for more reasonable investment in under the regime.

The Managing Director, BEDC, Mrs. Funke Osibodu, said the Disco is determined to invest massively to meet the requirement under its network.

According to her, the company would be rolling out 200,000 meters monthly, while plans are also at advanced stage to build embedded power generating system that would add about 500MW to its energy in the next few years.

Osibodu said the company has metered about 74,697 customers since take over, and it is also training youths to fill the technical skill gap in the sector.

4 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    “He (Otunba Sunday Oduntan) gave comparism of 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”. Who is this idiot giving Nigerians these fake statistics?
    UK population 30 million? not since the 1950s, it is closer to 65 million with all the Yoruba emigration. Germany 30 million? Not since dear Adolph was in power in the 1940s, try 90 million. South Africa has a population of about 54 million. Guessed The Guardian Newspaper can do a little more fact checking, and not listen to a gbati gbati idiot that knows nothing about anything outside oduduwa land!

  • Author’s gravatar

    Shameful otunba with spurious figures of populations of European countries. A quick trip to google would have solved this mess. Apologies’ will be expected.

  • Author’s gravatar

    This is just pure rubbish. lack of metering is one of the reason why this discos can’t generate enough money. They don’t want to do it, because they want to continue to loot Nigeria. in most developed countries, meters are install within 24 hours and that is a more complicated system than Nigeria. The government needs to stick to the demand of metering the nation within a year, discos have being dragging their legs for years now. What the government needs to do is to loan the money to meter the nation to the disco, with a favorable interest and term. however the conditions needs to be meters have to locally made, installation has to be within a reason time and use local workers.

  • Author’s gravatar

    There is nothing new behind those statistics. Its an attempt to rationalize the gross public extortion in that sacred cow sector immune from probes and audit. 24000 MW for egypt!!,11000 for algeria,!!! 90 ooo for uk !with a population of what? Check your demographic data once more! Their imagination cannot soar beyond statistical tables. They forgot that those nations meter their citizens whether they produce 100 mw or 100000 . But nigeria extorts,talks comparative statistics recently learnt then dishes out crazy bills! Its outrageous