Sulaimon Olanrewaju reports that 52 years after independence and trillions of naira sunk into power generation, Nigerians still await uninterrupted power supply.Historical overviewELECTRICITY generation activities started in Nigeria in 1896 when the first power plant was built in Lagos. However, it was not until 1929 when the Nigeria Electricity Supply Company (NESCO) was established as an electric utility company that the phenomenon spread as the Public Works Department (PWD) was empowered to build plants in different parts of the country. This resulted in the construction of a hydroelectric power station at Kuru near Jos, among others. Electricity supply at this time was mainly for government offices and quarters as well as for the very influential.However, there was a twist in 1951 when the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN) was established as it had the directive to facilitate adequate supply of electricity to as many Nigerians as were willing to have and able to pay for it. The first 132KV line was constructed in 1962, linking Ijora Power Station to Ibadan Power Station.The establishment of the Niger Dams Authority (NDA) in 1962 with a mandate to develop the hydropower potentials of the country was the real breakthrough in power generation and transmission. However, ECN and NDA were merged in 1972 to form the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA). In 1998, NEPA ceased to have an exclusive monopoly over electricity generation, transmission, distribution and sales as the government amended the Electricity and NEPA Acts to accommodate private sector participation in the sector. However, not much changed in spite of the amendment to the Act.Real reform in the sector started in 2001 when the Olusegun Obasanjo administration came up with the National Electric Power Policy. This paved the way for the metamorphosis of NEPA into the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and the formation of 18 successor companies.The current administration also set up the Presidential Action Committee on Power (PACP), which is chaired by the president and consists of the vice-president and ministers who play a key role in reforming the sector. The PACP provides high-level oversight of the implementation of electric power sector reform.The Goodluck Jonathan administration also came up with the Power Sector Reform Roadmap.ChallengesThe 1970s and 1980s are regarded as the golden era of electricity supply in the country. This was because though many rural communities were not connected to the national grid, there was ample supply of electricity to connected areas with downtime being very few and far between. However, since the 1990s, there had been a consistent decline in electricity supply in the country until very recently. This stems from the fact that for over two decades, the power sector was subjected to neglect. The power plants were crippled, especially as the hydro-power plants in Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro had a drop in generation sequel to age and obsolete equipment. This was worsened by the failure of the government to add a single power plant to the existing ones despite the rising population and increased demands for electricity. Demand for electricity has grown at the rate of 8.2 per cent per annum since 1984 against the Gross Domestic Product growth of between three and five per cent. Thus, electricity supply continued to depreciate to the extent that generation level dropped by as low as 1,500 megawatts in 2000.However, despite the resolve of the government to improve power generation through injection of funds since 2001, there was no marked improvement for a long time.Speaking on this, Dr Ade Ilugbo, an economist, said the solution to the problem posed by irregular supply of electricity emanated from the fact that the problem was multi-faceted.According to him, 'Electricity generation in Nigeria is characterised by a poorly-motivated workforce, vandalism and theft of cables and other vital equipment, accidental destruction of distribution lines, illegal connections and resultant over-loading of distribution lines. These have been responsible for unannounced load shedding, prolonged and intermittent outages. You can't change all of these all of a sudden even if you have access to all the funds you need. This explains why in spite of the huge amounts of money sunk into the sector, Nigeriansare still deprived of regular electricity supply.'Nigeria is a vast country. So, replacing the damaged cables and other equipment will take a long time. It is not even a matter of not having the resources; locating those vandalised cables will be a serious challenge.'Also speaking on the matter, an electrical engineer, Mr Alphonsus Ebule, said, 'One of the major factors responsible for the seeming slowness in getting as much improvement in electricity generation as we would have wanted is the old practice of building large centralised plants designed to transmit electricity. Nobody does that anymore. That has been the practice in the country since the 1960s; unfortunately that is what still obtains largely till date. In other climes, they have moved beyond that. What they deploy now is distributive generation. Power is generated in small units when and where it is needed. There is a serious problem in transmitting power over a long distance. The world has moved away from that but that is what we still use.'We do not need a national grid; what we need are small plants meant to serve specified areas. With that it would be much easier to manage power generation and transmission.' Ebule added that transmission lines were poorly maintained and frequently vandalised, which resulted in transmission losses of over 25 per cent of electricity produced.According to him, 'Until the nation is ready to invest massively over a period of time in the sector, at least a quarter of what is generated would be lost in transmission. If we claim to generate 4,000MW now, the reality is that we cannot really enjoy more than 3,000 MW. So, if you ask me, I will say there is no point increasing generation until the transmission end is well sorted out and taken care of.' He also said that the recent deregulation of electricity generation and distribution to pave the way for states and local councils to generate and distribute electricity within their areas was in order. According to him, the deregulation which came through two regulations issued by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC); the NERC Regulation on Embedded Generation 2012 and the NERC Regulation for Independent Electricity Distribution, would afford states and local government to take the required steps to improve electricity supply in their areas.He, however, observed that it was awkward that the generated power would first have to be put in the national grid before being distributed in the area. 'There is no way some of the generated power would not be lost in the process. The best way is to find a way by which generated power could be used directly by the areas that generated it without routing it through the national grid.' Corroborating Ebule's position, Dr Sam Amadi, Chairman of Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) opined that, 'Nigeria loses 40 to 50 per cent of the power it generates during transmission and if Nigeria were to generate an extra 1,000 megawatts today, it has no way of transmitting the extra megawatts because the current transmission lines are not adequate.'One other identified factor militating against progress in the sector is the inadequate supply of gas to large power plants, which the government is building. For instance, the Calabar Power Station in Cross River State has the capacity to generate 625MW but it also requires 175MMcfd and a 107-km offshore and land gas pipeline for it to come on stream.The story is not much different from that of Egbema Power Station in Imo State which has the capacity to generate 375MW and is nearing completion but requires 100 MMcfd and a 26-km stretch of gas pipeline. The Gbarain Power Station in Bayelsa State can generate, on completion, 250 MW but it would require 70 MMfcd for its turbine and this would require a gas pipeline of about five kilometers.Effects of irregular power supplyElectricity is vital to development. It is the key to improved social and economic well-being just as it is crucial to industrialisation and wealthcreation. It is also the door to employment opportunities to the teeming unemployed Nigerian youths. The nation's quest of becoming one of the 20 most developed countries in the world by 2020 would remain a pipedream unless it finds the key to an appreciable improvement in power generation and transmission.Consequent upon the epileptic nature of electricity supply in the country, many industrial outfits have resorted to generating their ownpower. A conservative estimation of power generated by households and industrial outfits from petrol and diesel generators puts it at 2500MW. This has resulted in the cost of doing business within the country very high. The effect of this is that locally produced goods in Nigeria are more expensive than imported ones. Thus, made in Nigeria goods are abandoned by Nigerians for cheaper imported ones. What's more, there is nowhere outside the country where Nigerian manufacturers can sell their products because of high cost of production. With this, many of them have been forced to close their plants, while a number of them now import foreign products to sell locally. Some multinationals have relocated their operations to other countries. With that development, economic growth propelled by the real sector has slowed down, employment is stalled and poverty has spread. This becomes apparent against the backdrop of the paltry four per cent contributed by the manufacturing sector to the Gross Domestic Product. Compared with the 35 per cent in Thailand, 34 per cent in China, 30 per cent in Malaysia and 28 per cent in Indonesia, it is evident that the contribution of the sector to the nation's economic growth gives a cause for concern. Even the small and medium-scale enterprises sub-sector, which is the heart of employment opportunity creation, is anaemic as a result of epileptic power supply. Entrepreneurship is at its lowest ebb ever in the country. Many artisans who require electricity supply to eke out a living have been thrown out of business and are forced to seek a quick way out of the quagmire by becoming commercial motor scooter riders.It goes without saying that solving the electricity problem is a sure way of putting the nation on the pathway to greatness.Government effortsSince the days of President Olusegun Obasanjo, the Federal Government has been making efforts to improve on power generation and supply. The first step taken by the Obasanjo administration was in 1999 when the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) set up the Electric Power Sector Implementation Committee (EPIC) for the purpose of undertaking a comprehensive study of the electricity power industry. EPIC came up with the national policy on electric power and a draft electric power sector reform bill. These formed the basis of a draft bill sent to the National Assembly by the NCP in 2002. The bill was passed in 2005.The major components of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act were restructuring of existing utility, liberalisation and privatisation, as well as reinforcement of existing infrastructure through National Integrated Power Projects (NIPPs) and other government interventions.With the Act came the creation of the PHCN to assume the assets, liabilities and employees of NEPA, unbundling of PHCN into successor companies and ensuring greater operational autonomy, development of an efficient electricity market, privatisation of successor companies and establishment of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).However, despite the huge sums of money sunk into the reform of the sector and the building of power plants, the change of government in 2007 stalled the progress in the sector. Some of the decisions made sequel to the Act were reversed, it was not until President Goodluck Jonathan assumed office that activities targeted at improving the sector resumed.The first step the administration took towards getting the reform back on track was to launch the Roadmap for Power Sector Reform inAugust 2010. This was followed with the re-instatement of the NERC and the inauguration of the board of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc, which is supposed to ensure investors in the sector that whatever power they generated would be purchased and paid for.The government also embarked on the privatisation of its thermal generation stations and power distribution companies with the aim of creating an electricity market that would lead to a more efficient electricity supply industry and a more vibrant power sector.According to Sure and Steady Transformation Progress Report of President Goodluck Jonathan's Administration, a publication of the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Research,Documentation and Strategy, in addition, the government has entered into agreements with various companies to increase powergeneration and improve electricity supply. The government has signed an MoU with General Electric. This agreement would see the company investing up to 15 per cent equity in power projects in the country summing up to 10,000MW capacity by the year 2020. It also entered into an agreement with Siemens to increase thermal generating capacity of up to 10,000MW by investing equity of 15 per cent per Independent Power Project. In the same vein, the government in July this year signed another MoU with Daewoo E &C of Korea with the company committing itself to investing up to 20 per cent equity per project summing up to 10,000MW.The publication also avers that, 'We have commissioned new power stations to increase existing generation capacity. This was done in the following locations; Olorunshogo in Ogun State gave 563MW, Sapele in Delta State gave 225 MW and Omotosho in Ondo State 112.5MW. Since this administration began, rehabilitation of existing power infrastructure has yielded up to 1000MW of electricity. This includes projects in Egbin Power Plant in Lagos State, Sapele and Ughelli in Delta State, Olorunsogo Phase 1 in Ogun State, as well as Shiroro and Kainji in Niger State.'The publication adds that a new peak generation of 4,322 MW has been delivered, stating 'This is the highest capacity ever attained.'While many Nigerians, especially those dwelling in urban, areas would agree that there seems to be a slight improvement in electricity supply, their concern, however, is that the government seems not to be keeping space with the terms of the Roadmap for Power Sector Reform because power generation capacity was targeted to have reached 7,000MW by April 2011. While they heave a sigh of relief at the attempt to improve electricity supply, they await with bated breath the delivery of the promised stable electricity.
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