Written By: Adewumi Rowland
The historical operational performance of the public sector power company-Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) is an attaint to the nation. The proposed investment plan, and government’s expenditure breakdown, so far, is an epitome of failure, even before conception. No doubt, Nigeria’s power sector will continue to witness insignificant changes, until the investment/business opportunities in Nigeria’s power sector is expanded with a simple, flexible and robust massive decentralisation of power generation, with serious consideration and concentration for alternative source of power generation. The decentralisation of power generation is the overall theme of this commentary. It is time we forget all these forced reforms of NEPA’s break-up into six generating companies, one transmission companies, and eleven distribution companies. This, as usual will give birth to local monopoly and local politics. We should be fed up with re-inventing the wheels, or inventing new solutions all the time. With the exception of magic, you can’t distribute what you can’t generate, and according to the late President Musa Yar’Adua, “we must solve this problem because until we do that, we cannot address the fundamental problems of our economy like poverty and unemployment”. Energy (generation) is the engine of any developed nation, and if addressed, every other thing will fall in place.
Our error of judgement need no subjection to criticism, because what is simply needed is a quantum jump in our approach to infrastructure development, rather than the magazine adaptation of mainstream and schematic approach, or copy-and-paste policies from “Engr. Expatriate”. A new approach with the right people and the right technocrats, and not some legal luminaries, or some Mongo Park and River Niger historians turned politicians, or demand and supply theorist are what we need. Energy generation is absolutely a technical issue of electromechanical capability, and the ability to manage prejudicious influences, barely comprehended by the citizenry or pady-pady politicians.
The other day, Ghana, a less endowed country, celebrated its ten years of uninterrupted power supply, and 50 years after independence, Nigeria the Giant cannot boast of regular power supply, even for 10% of her population. Ghana’s records were not achieved with semantics or poetry experts. In the days that our country was not detestable, Plateau State (Jos) generated and distributed its own electricity that provided uninterrupted power supply for years. This is before the agents of putrescence, NEPA, the precursor of PHCN, with crooked policy on technological exploitation, took over with rapacity. This showed that the problem is not technology, even despite the dumping of outdated technologies for us from the west? For example, while the western world are ditching non energy-saving bulbs by 2010, yet, our new so-call reform lack a simple insight of requisite energy saving measures and alternative energy supply; or when, where, what is the government’s policy on solar energy or windmills as alternative source of energy, apart from a mere paper mention.
Nigeria’s public power company-Power Holding Company of Nigeria has an installed generating capacity of about 6,000 megawatts but actual available output is less than 2,000 megawatts. The degeneracy market, called National Integrated Power Project (NIPP) have resulted in more misery than the propaganda that 10GW of electricity will be generated by 2010. According to Dr. Atiku’s confession, “When we came on board in 1999, the output of electricity generation was 3,500 megawatts, but now we are generating less than 1,000 megawatts after we have invested over $500 billion dollars”. If the Federal Government expended $500 billion on power generation during Obasanjo’s government, and could not reposition the sector, how much do we need NOW to reposition the sector? Where were present bunch of the mediocrities’ “re-branders” in this period of poor planning and underinvestment in the industry, begotten by villainy.
What of the rascalities of the recent committees, rationalised by legislators claiming to be honourable, on how funds grow wings. This fraud, falsity, trickery, deceit, and putrescence are the result of the decadence experienced in the power sector, and this obviously preceded the paralysis we’re witnessing today, especially the visible delayed and crooked routine maintenance of facilities that caused the deterioration in power generation output- now totally worn-out. Nevertheless, if this position will not escaped criticism, what lessons have we learned from the lack of timely routine maintenance of the generation assets? Create new solutions? The Federal Government’s new ‘magazine’ energy policies that will promote good generation and distribution, presently being articulated will be dead on arrival if certain critical issues are not addressed, that is, if the promised implementation strategy is not just the usual spin of “we’re working, we’re coming”. Coming from the same ‘family that promised that by the end of 2001 (even in 2010), the country would have uninterrupted power supply. This is simply a failure to fully acknowledge the significance of common sense, even with promises.
A considerable amount of literature has been published on gas utilisation for power generation, and is becoming a major role in new generation of electricity. The encouragement for gas-utilization for power generation in the country is a welcome development, even despite failed attempts to curb gas flaring. Therefore, Nigeria should recognize, first the importance of ensuring consistent and critical plans and regulations to locally regulate gas utilization, this should be taken seriously. Otherwise, the generalisability of the much published propaganda on its capability for power generation will be problematic; especially the privatization of key assets of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), and the passage of the Electric Power Reform Act of 2005, claimed will liberalize the sector. This National Gas Master Plan, articulated (?), is a welcome development, and the right compass direction. If properly implemented, without being possessed by spirit of commercial greed or avarice, will encourage gas-utilization projects; gas-fired power generation; Gas to Liquid projects (GTL); and prospective LNG plants. However, this proposals has a number of limitations, they depends largely on well structured pipelines, well managed. This is not the case.
The present power generation, about 61% from thermal plants and about 31% from hydro are dependent on a well managed pipeline network. Even with a well structural functioning of the pipelines, we are presently burning off all the natural gas that could have generated clean and low-cost energy for us. Therefore, new technologies (solar, wind, etc.) are additional sectors that government should look at with all righteousness. This is because, even if this wasted gas were piped to power stations to solve the problem, pipeline third-party interference is another problem beyond our control. While I doubt if pipeline vandalism will ever end in Nigeria, just like other countries and considering the fact that government agencies are involved, so, why can’t we exploit our naturally given resources that will be difficult to tamper with- sunshine.
In conclusion, the most important of these critiques is that we failed to note the importance and benefits of alternative energy generation. It can be argued that not only do the proposal by the Nigerian Energy Commission and the Solar Energy Society of Nigeria to implement renewable solar power system to meet the needs of rural villages and communities not yet served provide an inaccurate measure of the strength of our problem, but the most unrealistic, selfish opinion, and detrimental to the impulses of the ordinary people in the cities. One question that needs to be asked is that whatever we decide to do- wind energy, solar, hydro, nuclear, kerosene lantern or even candle, how well can we implement it critically, without cronyism?