Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, has disclosed that the 700MW Zungeru Hydro Power plant in Niger State is ready and will come on-stream before the end of this month.
The minister, who made the disclosure during an interactive session with journalists on Wednesday in Abuja, said the infrastructure on ground at the power plant could evacuate only 300 megawatt of electricity for now. According to him, d President Bola Tinubu had already signed the concession agreement for the power plant.
Adelabu disclosed that the present administration will deploy the bottom to top approach in addressing the numerous challenges confronting the power sector. The government, he said, would soon shift priorities to improving the distribution segment of the power value chains in order to boost power supply to homes and businesses.
According to the minister, the government would be committed to work hard towards boosting the liquidity in the industry bridge metering gap, which said has affected negativity the tariff system in the sector.
He lamented that after many years of failing to improve power supply, it was for the government to change tactics and put in place policies that specifically target the distribution segment.
The change in policy, he said, would include the complete review of the structure of the electricity distribution companies with size of franchise area, capitalization and tenure of licences in focus.
Adelabu noted that there was no point in having so much generation capacity without the capacity to deliver improved power to consumers, nothing that, “What we want to adopt is a bottom up approach which is delivery focused”.
“The little we generate, are we able to get it to consumers? So we are starting from the customer end. People always say there are three segments in the value chain but I see it as five segments value chain, that is from gas producers to generation plants, to transmission, to distribution, and then to customers. This is because customers have issues that we have to resolve.
“Number one issue is the meter gap that we have to close. If you do not meter you cannot measure, if you cannot measure, you cannot bill. If cannot bill you cannot collect. Collection is too poor for this. Liquidity is a major constraint.
“The blood that you need in the system is liquidity. As there is a direct transmission of electricity from generation to customers there must be a reversed transmission of cash all through the value chain,” he said.
Adelabu stressed that the industry also needed to tackle power theft and vandalism of power infrastructure, saying those caught would be made to face the law.
He said that the privatization option taken by the government in 2013 was wrong, insisting that commercialization would have benefitted the country more with improved investment and performance. The government, Adelabu said, was looking at the processes taken by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in extending operational licenses of the DisCos
“We are going to look at the structure of the DisCos to see if they are structured in a way that would make them deliver the services we want them to deliver. We look at the territorial coverage of the DisCos to see if they are too large and see how we can create mini-DisCos out of the area.
“We are not going to impose anything because we are aware that contracts have been signed and commitments made. We are looking at all these in a holistic manner and very soon a clear guide and direction will be issued by the government,” he said.
