Babatunde Fashola, minister of  Power, Works and Housing, is a happy man. His joy knew no bounds as he delivered the keynote address at The Guardian power summit entitled: Beyond rhetoric: Turning Nigeria’s power sector value chain potentials to profit, in Lagos.
While presenting the federal government’s scorecard on the power sector for the past two years, he said power generation increased from 2,690 megawatts, mw, which the government met in 2015, to 6,619 mw. He said the growth was not limited to generation, but to all other arms, such as transmission and distribution, noting that the government was focusing on the distribution arm.
This growth didn’t come by chance but through the implementation of the Power Sector Recovery Programme amongst others.
He explained that through the programme, the government has completed the rehabilitation of the 240mw Afam Power Plant; the 10 mw Katsina Wind Farm, the 29mw Dadin Kowa Hydro Plant, 30 mw Gurara Hydro Plant, the 40 mw Kashimbilla Hydro Power Plant, the 215 mw Kaduna Plant, Zungeru’s 700 mw Hydro Plant and the Mambilla 3050 mw Hydro Plant, which was recently approved for construction. He said the government would also soon complete several transmission projects across the country.
“When the President Muhammadu Buhari Buhari-led government was inaugurated on May 29, 2015, the amount of power available on the grid on that day was 2690 megawatts (mw).  The transmission capacity was around 5000mw and was then infamously described as the weakest link. The distribution capacity existing at around 750 33/kv trading points, from where power is received by the DisCos and sent to us, was about 4000mw. Clearly, the power being generated at 2690mw was not up to the transmission capacity of 5000mw and was insufficient to fully optimise the distribution capacity of 4000mw,” Fashola said.
He added that, “Within a few months after President Buhari’s assumption of office, power improved and we all acknowledged it. We credited it to the President’s ‘body language.’But the truth was that it had little to do with body language, and more to do with a sense of purpose that people sat up and began to do what ought to be done. In addition, the rains were upon us in July  to September 2015. There was gas supply, which allowed the thermal plants to produce power. Therefore, from Hydro and Thermal sources we reached an all-time peak power production of 5,074mw before the damage to the pipelines started and we started losing power.”
The minister said that the government created the declaration of eligible customers, to encourage people to invest in building and expanding distribution assets, development of mini grid regulations to encourage individuals and communities to build their own mini power generation and distribution facilities, and award of contracts to complete and expand transmission facilities and building new ones across the country.
“The result is that as at September 4, the available power that can be put on the grid was 6,619 Mw, the incremental power we sought to achieve from 2,069 mw in 2015); the transmission capacity was simulated at 6,700 mw up from 5,000mw in 2015 but the distribution capacity was 4,600 mw, which was what was put on the grid. On September 12, 2017, production of power reached an all-time level of 7,001 mw,” he added.