The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has said that the phase I of the Mass Metering Programme of the government has started, stating that four million meters are expected to be deployed during this programme.
The commission, however, assured that in the next three years, eight million meters would be deployed in order to close the metering gap in the country. It however stated that 100 percent closure cannot be guaranteed as people would continue to build houses and this would lead continuous demand for meters.
The media briefing which had all the top officials of NERC, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Generation Companies (GenCos) and Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) was aimed at restoring public confidence in the system.
Sanusi Garba, chairman, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), disclosed this when he briefed the media on the steps taken so far to address the current challenges in the power sector, during the break of Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) meeting in Lagos.
The chairman who gave a review of the steps taken so far stated that a lot of work is being done to ramp up generation.
He said what is important to the Nigerian consumers is what the industry is doing to move out of the current challenge and return supply to what it was before, and also to begin to improve on what it was last year.
According to him, the gas pipeline supplying Okpai has been restored. Aside from this, he said, the okpai phase II power plant in the same premises as Okpai I, NERC is currently discussing with the owners to see how gas can be supplied and also bring that plant on stream.
He said by the end of yesterday, he hoped, that the pigging of the pipeline supplying gas to the Calabar Power Plant would have been completed and 450 megawatts restored to the national grid.
Furthermore, he stated that he has been assured that two units from Afam six Power Plant would be back on stream in the next three weeks.
He said NERC had approved a special gas pricing for emergency contracting of gas from the Nigerian Gas Marketing Company Ltd for the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NPDHC) to optimise utilisation of its power plants. This is expected to bring about 800MW would be generated from the NDPHC plants.
The NERC boss said the gas pipeline affected by acts of vandalism had been restored
He regretted that the national power grid collapsed twice last week amid fuel scarcity, a hike in fuel price.
According to Garba, the meeting was in line with the directive of Abubakar Aliyu, minister of power, for stakeholders to work together to restore the normal distribution of electricity and to improve supply nationwide.
He reiterated the shortage of gas supply to power plants, the collapse of the national grid, illiquidity of the industry, huge metering gap and infrastructure deficit as some of the challenges bedevilling the sector.
He said the government planned to ensure that the thermal power plants are working optimally and that the grid was stable.
NERC, he said, had approved a special gas pricing for emergency contracting of gas from the Nigerian Gas Marketing Company Ltd for the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NPDHC) to optimise utilisation of its power plants.
According to him, it is expected that about 800MW would be generated from the NDPHC plants.
The NERC boss said the gas pipeline affected by acts of vandalism had been restored.
He added that the “pigging” of the gas pipeline supplying gas to the Odukpani Power Plant was scheduled for completion on March 21 yesterday to ramp up generation by about 400MW.
On tariff adjustments, Garba said the review was in line with the tariff methodology adopted by NERC for periodic adjustments of tariffs based on inflation, exchange rates and gas pricing.
Also speaking the managing director of Niger Delta Power Holding Company NDPHC, Chiedu Ugbo, said that at least 800mw is expected to come on stream with the intervention made so far.
He said in calabar, the gas supplier is currently maintaining the gas pipeline, pigging, and the exercise was suppose to have ended yesterday, Monday, and by 12 midnight Calabar Power plant should have been restored to 450 megawatts.
According to him, it is the outage in Calabar and Alaoji as well that added to the overall outage in the country. So between Calabar and Alaoji about 800mw was lost. In Aaloji 337mw has been lost because the gas supplier, Total Energies suffers force majeure.
“We have five powers plants in the western axis of Niger River up to Olorunsogo is Ogun state, but our challenge has been gas. Thankfully with the intervention of the federal government and NERC we are now able to contract for 600mw worth this power stations for long period. We have negotiated all the issues, the agreements, with the Nigerian Gas marketing Company, we have obtained the approval of the NERC as to the gas price, then we go-ahead to close the issues and begin to get gas from the gas company,” he said.
On his part, Sule Abdulaziz, managing director, TCN, said the current administration had spent over N1 trillion on strengthening the transmission network.
Abdulaziz said the TCN had the capacity to wheel 8,000MW but was currently receiving 3,500MW from the GenCos.
