Background
It was September 25th, 2022, Nigeria was thrown into complete darkness, yet again. Power generation had dropped to an inconceivable 38MW for the 200 million population – Nigeria’s power grid had collapsed.
At the newspaper stand the other day, one frustrated Nigerian asked, “what constitutes Nigeria’s power grid?” I tried to explain as best I could – The grid is a network of generation (GenCos) and distribution companies (DisCos) plus the Federal Government owned Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
The DisCos are the face of the power sector being the companies that the consumer sees and meets. They (11 privatised Discos) are the connection between the consumer and Nigeria’s power grid. Nigeria also has 23 power generating plants, the GenCos, with capacity to generate just over 11,000MW. This amount is well short of the 40,000 MW needed to ‘feed’ the peoples of Nigeria. This deficit, which is almost always larger due to load shedding and grid collapse, is bridged by the hapless citizenry by powering private generator sets. Presidents and power minister have come and go, billions of dollars poured down the drain and nothing has changed.
The journey of Nigeria’s power grid
Interestingly, Electricity was first generated in Lagos in 1886 before the birth of Nigeria. Generation in the early days circled around commercial entities – for example, tin mining in Jos, Timber and plywood in Sapele and the colonial government homes and offices. The Kainji hydropower plant was commissioned in 1969. The National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) was created in 1972 and in 2013 with the Power Sector Reforms, Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) replaced NEPA.
Buhari administration
The current administration has spent well over N1.5 trillion in the last 7 years on the sector alone. In that time frame the grid has collapsed 98 times!
In fact, Nigeria’s electricity grid has collapsed over 200 times in the last nine years – and that is inclusive of two administrations – the Jonathan and Buhari administrations.
Psychological, economic and physical impact on Nigerians
Any Nigerian who is old enough would know clearly what joyous shouts of “NEPA!” means. This shouts or groans often echoes in the evenings from homes and along seemingly empty streets. It often signals the return of electric power supply to homes. The people have been so deprived they celebrate the upswings of an epileptic service. The younger millennials may be unaware of this national cultural lingo partly due to the name change from NEPA to PHCN.
Apart from the psychological impact, the effect of power sector inefficiency on running costs of businesses and households is well-known to and well-experienced by every Nigerian and need no elaboration. The negative consequences are numerous – the attendant noise pollution from small generator sets powering the individual homes and businesses, the poisonous emissions and impact on health, and the contemporary discussions of effect on carbon emissions.
Governmental action
Despite governmental investments in Nigeria’s power grid, the citizenry has not received any positive dividends. This could be attributable to a lack of sectoral leadership and absence of appropriate expertise in maintenance of different aspects of the grid – for example, the generating plants. An important challenge is the activities of energy thieves (Yes, like oil thieves).
Sensing the incompetence and inefficiency of components of the grid, the Buhari administration recently concluded the takeover of 4 DisCos and inaugurated a 10-member board of NELMCO, a liability management company aimed at resolving tariff shortfalls.
What more needs to be done
Diversification/Decentralisation of Nigeria’s electricity mix to improve capacity and mismatch efficiency.
Improve on the maintenance of grid infrastructure.
Increase transformer capacity (FG already working on this with the Siemens deal).
Improve prepaid meter coverage and revenue generation.
Laws to enable more private and sub-national investment in the sector.
Utilise 21 st century technologies, the smart grid.
Conclusion
With proper leadership and focused management, 24/7 and reliable power supply is achievable in Nigeria.
Countries lesser than us have it, why can’t we?