Nigeria Faces 'Decade of Grid and Gas Constraints'
Nigeria faces at least ten years of severe grid electricity challenges due to gas constraints, according to a report issued May 22 by the state-owned grid operator Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
According to the TCN report, submitted to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), gas supply constraints will remain very import, as well as insufficient generation capacity.
Gas constraints will continue to limit the available energy until there is a massive addition of more power plants, the report said. TCN was assisted in preparing the report by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The report highlighted the fact that about 77% of available energy from gas-fired power plants is used, with the remaining 23% not used due to problems in the entire supply chain. It also says that, if the expansion of gas-fired plants were to be accelerated to meet the demand, then the supply of gas would likewise have to increase.
Nigeria's president Muhammadu Buhari also revealed May 22 that, during the Olusegun Obasanjo regime from 1999 to 2007, about $16bn was earmarked for transforming the power sector, alleging that the former president misused those funds, resulting in current problems in Nigeria's power supplies which include brownouts. In a brief response May 23, former president Obasanjo said he had been absolved of any wrongdoing pertaining to the matter and invited the president to institute an inquiry into the same matter if he wanted.
Obasanjo was also quoted as saying the funds were used to execute the seven National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP) and eighteen gas turbines, currently in use for power distribution.
As a way of improving power in the country, earlier this month Nigeria's power minister Babatunde Fashola said the sector was open for any private individual who wanted to generate less than 2 MW of power to set up a plant, without any requirement to have a licence: "Any interested individual or company can set up power generation from 2MW downwards and sell it to the public without requesting any licence."
"We are encouraging people to set up small power generation companies and sell it according to their capacity, not necessarily going for big projects that require a huge amount of money and expertise."