The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, has expressed concerns over the poor electricity supply situation in the country occasioned by a plethora of issues including outstanding subsidy debts, emphasizing that Nigeria should migrate to a full cost-reflective tariff regime if the federal government cannot pay for subsidies owed to the market.<\/p>\n
The Minister also stated that National Independent Power Plants (NIPPs) to being operated and managed by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Plc (NDPHC) were currently suffering under-capacity utilisation of below 25 per cent due to gas supply constants.<\/p>\n
Adelabu made the assertions on Wednesday during his visit to the 750 megawatts (mw) Olorunsogo Power Generating Plant in Ogun State and the 500mw Omotosho Generating Plant in Ondo State as part of his nationwide inspection visit to power installations of the federal government.<\/p>\n
The minister said, \u201cWe have been to Olorunsogo and we are now in the Omotosho Power Plant. These are big power plants. I am impressed with the size and the technology of the power plants here. Their operational history is also impressive.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I am amazed at the level of underutilisation of these power installations. Each of them operates below 25 per cent capacity, when we are still complaining that power generation is low in this country. The under-capacity utilisation is due to a variety of reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe major part of it is the shortage in gas supply to these installations, which is why I needed to see these plants myself, to look at what can be done to improve the operational capacity of these plants. What can we do to repair those turbines that are down?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat can we do to support these power plants to operate at impressive capacity, so that power supply will improve nationwide?\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he would later engage with the management of the power companies to explore better ways of collaboration and cooperation such that the federal government could support them to improve their operational capacity, and consequently improve the level of power supply to the distribution companies.<\/p>\n
Adelabu also observed that the government-owned generating companies were currently undervalued, arguing that a number of works needed to be done on them by the government to bring them back to higher capacity and improved valuation before they could be sold.<\/p>\n
To address the gas supply challenge, the minister said there was need for a roundtable meeting and collaboration with the Minister of State for Petroleum (Gas) in order to ensure that gas supply to the Gencos were regular, and ultimately solve the issue of under capacity utilisation of the plants.<\/p>\n
At this point, Adelabu said Nigeria should migrate to a full cost-reflective tariff regime if the federal government cannot pay for subsidies owed the market.<\/p>\n
He said the meeting with the relevant ministers would continue on Thursday, noting that they were to discuss ways to help the power sector through injection of the required liquidity and payment of parts of the outstanding debts owed the generating companies.<\/p>\n
Going forward, the power minister said Nigeria needed to have a conversation on whether to pay for the real price of power, which he said was no longer cheap.<\/p>\n
According to him, throughout West Africa, Nigeria still pays the lowest tariff for power supply, arguing that Ghana, Ivory Coast, Niger and the likes pay almost more than double of Nigeria\u2019s electricity tariff.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, if the government is insisting on continuing with the subsidy, then it has to be funded, so that there\u2019s no debt piling up for the generating companies. That\u2019s the only way out of the current power situation,\u201d he maintained.<\/p>\n
However, Adelabu assured Nigerians of an improvement in nationwide power supply in the coming weeks, saying the drop in supply experienced in the past three weeks was a temporary situation and resulted from shortages in gas supply to the power Gencos.<\/p>\n
He also promised that the government would pay \u00a0a major part of the debts owed the Gencos in the next couple of days, adding, \u201cAnd I believe that gas supply will improve to the power generating companies and power supply to the entire nation will also improve.\u201d<\/p>\n
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