‘Government should tackle reasons for poor supply’

The Chairman of Egbin Power Plc, Kola Adesina, has urged government to tackle the factors responsible for poor power supply in Nigeria.Speaking on the reasons for the poor power supply in the country, Adesina, who pinpointed inappropriate pricing for the power supply, said without each of the components in the value chain attracting the right price, availability and reliability of power supply would be a mirage.

According to him, the recent intervention fund from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was predicated on appropriate pricing. “If the price is not right, CBN will not come in.The CBN coming in is meant to accelerate the process of enhancing capacity development in the system: technically, and commercially. Therefore, it is to be recognised that the fund is not a gift. It is predicated on being an appropriate price associated with the product in question,” Adesina said.

The Egbin Power boss explained that integrity of supply was dependent on each aspect of the chain doing what it was meant to do.“Whenever the man on the street hears of increase in tariff, without concomitant reliable supply, he gets angry. However, the fact remains that without adequate and continuous investment in the sector, up to the minute point, electricity supply at the desired level will not happen,” the power expert said.

Adesina regretted that 40 per cent to 60 per cent of Nigerians do not pay for electricity they consumed. “What that means in simple arithmetic is that if the invoiced amount is N100, distribution companies receive between N40 and N60. The shortfall has huge consequences on service delivery by each of the constituent part in the value chain.”

He noted that vandalism of pipelines has significantly grounded most of the power plants. “A case in point is Egbin Power Plant, which at the time of take over in 2013 was doing about 400MW at best. Today, we have invested heavily in the rehabilitation and overhaul of the turbines, boilers, etc such that it can generate 1,100MW. This level of generation was continuously put into the grid for about 5 months last year, until gas supply constraints and principally vandalism became the order of the day.In the last 3 months or so, we have been doing between 300 and 400MW,” Adesina said.