Association Says Nigeria Needs 30,000MW Generation For Stable Supply

To guarantee a stable supply of electricity in the country, the Association of Nigeria Energy Distributors (ANED) has said Nigeria needs to generate about 30,000MW.

The Association also called for the decentralisation of the national grid to ensure improved transmission and distribution of power in Africa’s most populous nation.

The Executive Director, Research and Advocacy, ANED, Sunday Oduntan, said this on Tuesday in Lagos at a workshop organised by ANED in collaboration with the Macarthur Foundation Project.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the workshop had its theme: “Building Consumer Awareness and Strengthening the Customer Service Capacity of Electricity Distribution Companies.’’

According to Oduntan, presently, Nigeria has a population of more than 200 million people and is currently generating less than 5,000MW which is grossly inadequate to meet the energy needs of the nation.

The statistics made available reveals that there are 32 million households in Nigeria.

“If Nigeria can generate 30,000MW today, we will have 24 hours of electricity in Nigeria.

“South Africa has a population of 67 million people and is generating 46,000MW which is more than enough for the country," Oduntan said.

He said only 28 power plants in Nigeria were currently operational with 25 powered by gas while three were hydropower stations.

“We have a National Grid still owned by the Federal Government against what was agreed on during the power sector privatisation process.

"There is the need to decentralise the grid. That is what we should have done with the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

“The government needs to privatise the company to enable better transmission of the power being generated,’’ he said.

He also urged DisCos to deploy modern technologies to improve their services to customers.

Oduntan, who is the spokesperson for DisCos, however, maintained that the companies could only distribute the volume of power allocated to them by the TCN to their customers.