Oil & Energy

Strategising For Rivers Electricity Grid

Published

14 years ago

May 21, 2012

It is inexplicable that despite the
abundant sources and resources of energy at Nigeria’s disposal, it is still
difficult for the citizens to enjoy efficient power supply. About seven years,
after the Power Sector Reform Act 2005, we are yet to move to the point of
counting our benefits.

What baffles one most is that despite all
the efforts made by the Federal Government in this regard and the huge amount
sunk into the power sector to revamp it, there is no remarkable improvement. A
total of $16 billion has been poured for 10 years, yet the whole business is
stinking, not much has changed, sounding like a hoax every passing day.

It is the exclusive responsibility of the
federal government to give the people the opportunity to enjoy affordable and
accessible stable electricity. What the nation needs at this time are scores of
compact micro-schemes to deliver power off grid to take the hook off the inept
Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

So, as the PHCN is warming up for
privatization before the end of this year, it is pertinent that state
governments and private investors take over the distribution and transmission
of electricity in Nigeria. There are gas, coal and water resources available
for exploit to the advantage of the power sector. Independent Power Projects
(IPP) will enable state governments deliver services that are so critical to
the welfare of the people.

It is high time we began to question the
reasoning behind retaining any monopoly in the value delivery chain which is a
negation of the liberal mantra of the present administration under President
Goodluck Jonathan. The Power Holding Company of Nigeria originally christened
Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN) and later called the National
Electricity Power Authority (NEPA) has outlived its usefulness.

The corporation or organization is not
living up to its bidding both in distribution and transmission, so it is good
enough for privatisation. Current realities show that transmission suffers the auctioneers hammer.
There is a drastic and constant drop in the power supply ocean. Obviously, not
much has changed in the power scene, the chain remains as unreliable as ever.

The Rivers State Government during a press
conference in Port Harcourt recently called on the Federal Government to
dispose of its distribution aspect to the private sector operators so that they
can run them as business, bring in efficiency and make power available to our
people.

The Commissioner for Power, Hon. Augustine
Wokocha who addressed the conference said: “We are prepared, as a government to
invest into distribution despite the
fact that it is not part of our responsibility. People are tired of hearing
megawatts, megawatts, they want to see just one watt. The issue of power
distribution is the exclusive property of the Federal Government via the PHCN”.

According to him, the government’s
objective is to provide regular power for the people. “Our driving force is not
to make profit but for our people to make profit for themselves and the
improvement of the economy of the state to be independent and self-sustaining”.
The government, as he puts it, is acting as a catalyst to the industrial and
economic development of the state, noting, however, that it will partner with a
private sector outfit that will buy the generation aspect, of which discussion
is on-going.

The commissioner disclosed that the state
government is strategising itself towards creating own grid in the state such
that “all our generation will be on that grid and the power supply not from
one, generation point. However, he added
we are conscious of the fact that at the beginning, the demand will jump up, so
we are determined to establish a reasonable capacity and to ensure that other
Nigerians can enjoy what we are doing”.

He explained that for now, the Rivers State
Government has a sharing arrangement with the PHCN to the ratio of 70:30,
pointing out that the governor in 2008 had said that about N22 billion arose
from that agreement for which PHCN has not paid anything and it is running into
N100 billion by now. “The amount is based on what we have generated from the
70:30 formula and given to PHCN”. The government has 70 while PHCN takes 30.

On the way forward, Wokocha explained that
the state is not going to depend on the sharing any more as a modality for
power purchase agreement is being worked out whereby PHCN will buy what the
government is generating and pay for it.

Many states including Rivers State are
anxiously waiting for the whistle to blast for them to invest their resources
in power generation. But it is worthy of note that the situation where states
would invest their hard-earned money in power generation only to have the
output wheeled into the national grid by an arrogant Federal Government is not
encouraging.

Federal Government should allow states move
into the venture of power distribution and transmission if we are to have a
durable framework for captive power generation. From its four gas turbines, the
Rivers State government under the IPP has 180 megawatts of electricity and
hopes to increase if given the free hand.

Today, the Lagos State Government has
delivered the Akute Power Project – a 12 MW Plant dedicated to the state water
corporation with another IPP to deliver 15 MW in two phases to serve the
Central Lagos Business District on course, and many more which are off-grid
underway.

There are reports that limited gas supply
is one of the major challenges facing the eight gas turbines in the country –
NIPP Power Plant, Egbin Power Plant, Olorunsogo Plant, Alaoji Power Plant,
Ihovbor Power Plant, Calabar Power Plant, Gbarain Power Plant and Omotosho Power Plant. The 304
MGW installed capacity eight gas turbines power plants in the country built and
inaugurated about five years ago have practically packed up and six of them
broken down.

The issue of gas needs in this country is
one that the Federal Government has not given adequate thought. Until this matter is sorted out and
bound to impact the power sector, the problem of power shortage and outage
would continue to rear its ugly head. The issue of gas supply slow down the
operations of most of the turbines in the country.

In 2010, government’s efforts at improving
power supply got a boost with the commencement of gas supply to the PHCN
facilities. Pan Ocean Oil Corporation (POOC), operator of the NNPC Pan Ocean
Joint Venture commenced supply of gas to the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) to be
conveyed eventually to PHCN power generating plants. It supplied 50 million
standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d) of gas to the NGC from its Ovade-Osharefe
gas processing plant.

The flares out directive of the Federal
Government must be adhered to by oil and gas companies. With the gas processing
plants and pipelines which transverse the country, one would think that the
challenge of gas supply is no issue. Oando has so far expended more than N18
billion to develop a 128KM cross-country gas pipeline traversing Akwa Ibom and
Cross River States and has an installed capacity of 100 mmscfd of gas.

The move by the Federal Government
currently to facilitate the supply of gas to companies should be intensified
and implemented to the letter. A team is on a weeklong tour of gas
installations for this purpose. This will go a long way to actualise the hope
that 75 per cent of electricity can come out from natural gas. Nigeria has past
the stage of Kainji and shortage of gas to generate electricity. We have more
than enough gas resources for power generation, so the Federal Government must
be alive to its responsibility by ensuring that sufficient gas is supplied to
power our turbines at all levels.

If the Federal Government means that its
plans for improved power supply must
come to fruition, it must afford to compromise handing over the power busiess
to investors and be serious about the Power Agenda. It should ensure that
whoever gets the power generation, transmission and distribution assets must be
an investor who has the will-power to improve on it and not the type that would further resell to
another investor thereafter, thereby compounding the power problem being
suffered by the citizens. The new tariff billed to commence from June 1 should
be put on hold until the power supply improves.

Federal Government investment in power has
not been able to translate into stable power because of lack of accountability
but if the government had done the right thing to design a mechanism to restore
confidence in the power sector, a good result would have been recorded before
now. Statistics show that the power generation target set for 2011 was 5,000
Megawatts, achievement was 4420MW while target for 2012 was 6,000MW but has
crashed to 3200MW resulting in the sacking of some top officials of the PHCN
recently. The uncooperative attitude of some staff of PHCN reveals that there
are major threats to the actualisation of the new power reforms.

To ensure sufficient gas supply for our
power, not just international oil companies should participate in the gas
project of this country but also indigenous firms should be given priority
attention or consideration. Gas to power distribution is a boost the country
badly needs and there must be a corrupt-free national strategy for managing the
gas revenues because the worry about monies generated from the oil ad gas
sector in this country is the ‘course’ of embezzlement and misappropriation. We
must try to avoid the mistakes of the past. Nigeria is a democracy everybody is
watching, so it is expected that there is going to be improvement in the power
sector with the Power Road Map of the present administration. President
Jonathan should exert the political will to actualize the programme.

Our power sector needs a lot of gas, so
there should be concerted efforts to develop our gas resources as never done by
past administrations. Nigeria has large gas resources and so should subsidise
the product for easy reach and domestic consumption. Nigeria is adjudged the
world’s seventh largest producer of high grade gas with zero per cent surplus
and rich in natural gas liquids. It is a universal knowledge that no country
attains the status of industrialization without the impacting influence of
power supply.

Shedie Okpara

Oil & Energy

Can Cheap Batteries Deliver COP31’s 35% Electrification Goal?

Published

3 days ago

November 9, 2026

The Tide

Electrification will be the major focus of the COP31 United Nations climate conference, to hold in Antalya, Türkiye, from today, November 9 to 20, 2026. The host country will invite the attending nations to sign onto a voluntary pledge to reach 35 percent electrification on a global level by 2035. J

ust a year ago, this target may have seemed overly ambitious, but now, experts say that a number of factors, including volatile oil and gas markets stemming from the war in Iran, paired with enormous advances in clean energy technologies, have put that goal within “striking distance.”

The months-long closure of the Strait of Hormuz has catalyzed the clean energy transition and the rate of electrification around the world. Before the United States and Israel began their military offensive in Iran back in February of this year, one fifth of the world’s oil and gas trade flowed through the Strait of Hormuz. Its abrupt closure therefore sent global oil and gas markets into turmoil and sent energy-importing countries around the world scrambling for alternatives, especially ones that they could produce and control on their home soil. And, just like that, renewable energy became the new face of energy security.

“Wind and solar cannot be embargoed, blockaded, or shut off by a foreign power,” David Frykman, General Partner at Stockholm-based venture capital group Norrsken, wrote in an op-ed for Fortune earlier this year. “Every terawatt-hour of domestic renewable generation is a terawatt-hour that no adversary can weaponize.”

But there is another, quieter force that has made this rapid global pivot toward renewable energies possible – the energy storage boom. Energy storage is critical to ensure grid stability in the face of rapid electrification and the increasing representation of intermittent energy sources like wind and solar power in national energy mixes. Major advances in the sector in recent years have made battery storage more affordable and more scalable than ever before – just in time for the world’s most recent bout of ‘fossilflation.’

“What’s really become a game-changer in the past two years is the rapid deployment of large-scale batteries that can hang onto ever larger amounts of power to be used throughout the day to smooth out demand and avoid overtaxing the grid,” Forbes wrote in a Monday report.

The second quarter of this year saw the United States’ largest-ever energy storage expansion, at 20.2 gigawatt-hours of additional capacity, according to a report by the Solar Energy Industries Association and Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. That puts this year’s total additions at 30.8 GWh – and counting.

“Although President Trump is no fan of renewable energy or batteries, utility-scale energy storage capacity still nearly doubled to 165 GWh from 88 GWh in the first 18 months of his administration,” the Forbes article goes on to detail. “Grid operators, utilities and data center developers are all buying batteries as fast as they can to meet power demand and improve grid reliability. As a result, battery energy storage systems supplied more electricity to the grid in the year’s first eight months than in all of 2025.”

Ironically, despite his best efforts, Donald Trump is overseeing one of the United States’ most significant clean energy booms in the nation’s history as solar and wind have simply become too cheap to fail. And the United States is not alone. Buoyed by a flood of cheap solar panels and battery storage systems coming out of China, even the world’s poorest countries are experiencing clean energy revolutions.

“Some countries are pulling off stunningly fast energy transitions, adding solar so rapidly, it’s become a major source of electricity over the course of years — not decades,” reports CNN.

Pakistan has become the surprise poster child of this trend as residents install rooftop solar and batteries faster than any other market on Earth, as these systems provide electricity more cheaply and reliably than the country’s own beleaguered energy infrastructure. In addition, emerging economies including Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Morocco, Kenya, and Namibia have all overtaken the United States – the world’s largest economy – in their clean energy transitions.

By Haley Zaremba

Oil & Energy

MAN, Ministry Tackle High Electricity Costs, Erratic Supply

Published

3 days ago

November 9, 2026

The Tide

The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has said it is working with the Federal Ministry of Power to address high electricity tariffs, unreliable grid supply and rising energy costs that are undermining industrial production and competitiveness in the country.

The association said the collaboration would focus on developing sustainable energy solutions for manufacturers, including renewable energy, battery storage, captive power generation and improved electricity distribution.

Speaking during the second edition of the Manufacturers Energy Security and Energy Efficiency Summit in Lagos, the President, MAN, Dr. Ifeanyi Okoye, regretted that high electricity tariffs, unreliable grid supply and heavy dependence on fossil fuels had made industrial production exceptionally difficult.

Okoye said energy expenses consumed nearly half of some factories’ operating budgets, weakening their competitiveness, increasing product prices and threatening jobs.

He said manufacturers had continued to operate their own power infrastructure despite paying for electricity from the national grid.

“When energy expenses claim nearly half of a factory’s operating budget, competitiveness evaporates, retail prices skyrocket, and jobs are placed on the line,” he said.

Okoye said the association was moving beyond advocacy to implement practical solutions through its Industrial Energy Cost Reduction and Energy Support Programme, as key partners in delivering the initiative.

According to him, the programme would promote factory-roof solar installations, battery energy storage systems, captive natural gas generation and smart energy management networks to reduce production costs and protect manufacturers from global fuel price shocks.

He, however, stressed that manufacturers needed affordable, long-term financing to undertake the energy transition.

“We cannot finance 21st-century industrial transitions with 30-day commercial bank loans at cut-throat interest rates,” Okoye said.

He said the summit would bring financial institutions, climate funds and green investors together to develop long-tenured, low-interest financing instruments, carbon credit opportunities and asset-financing

Also speaking, the Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, warned industrial customers against unauthorised electricity connections.

He disclosed that investigations had uncovered about 14 industrial customers along a particular corridor who owed more than N400m in unpaid electricity charges over several years.

Tegbe said such practices deprived the electricity sector of revenue needed to sustain power supply and unfairly burdened consumers who paid their bills.

“Such conduct deprives the sector of revenue that we need to sustain the supply, and unfairly burdens consumers who pay honestly,” Tegbe said.

The minister vowed to recover the outstanding charges and hold those responsible accountable, urging MAN to encourage its members to maintain lawful electricity connections and comply with applicable regulations.

Tegbe acknowledged that manufacturers continued to struggle with electricity interruptions, poor power quality, vandalism and electricity theft, adding that the government was directing investments towards addressing the underlying problems.

Speaking on behalf of manufacturers, the MAN South-East Chairman, Ada Chukwudozie, said energy had become a question of survival and competitiveness for Nigerian manufacturers.

She said manufacturers were increasingly financing and managing their own electricity infrastructure while struggling with rising production costs and limited access to capital.

“We are effectively running a second power system paid for by ourselves, besides the grid we also pay for. And that is why for the Nigerian manufacturer, energy is no longer simply an operational issue. It is a question of survival and competitiveness,” Chukwudozie said.

She explained that unreliable electricity supply forced manufacturers to make difficult choices between purchasing energy and raw materials, maintaining equipment and paying workers.

The regulator added that manufacturers could strengthen their competitiveness by adopting cleaner energy sources as international markets increasingly imposed environmental and carbon-related requirements on products and supply chains.

Oil & Energy

Reps Panel Dismisses Petition Against NIPCO gas Licence

Published

3 days ago

November 9, 2026

The Tide

The House of Representatives has dismissed a petition seeking the cancellation of gas distribution licences awarded to NIPCO Plc, ruling that the petitioners failed to provide credible evidence to substantiate their allegations.

The decision followed a review by the House Sub-Committee on the Petition concerning NIPCO Plc, which rejected the complaint filed by the Nigerian Energy Security Watch Group (NESWG) for lacking substance and evidential support.

The petition had called for an investigation into, and the suspension and cancellation of, gas distribution licences issued by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to NIPCO for Lagos, Ogun, Oyo and Osun states, as well as the Lagos and Lekki Free Trade Zones.

Announcing the decision last Thursday, the Chairman of the Sub-Committee, Peter Aniekwe, said the petitioners relied on hearsay and failed to establish any wrongdoing in the licensing process.

“At its sitting today, the Sub-Committee resolved not to proceed with the investigation, and the petition is accordingly dismissed,” Aniekwe said.

The committee, which also includes Dahaltu Shehu, was constituted in October to examine the petition. It was granted an additional 14 days on October 26 to conclude its assignment.

Aniekwe said the issuance and regulation of gas distribution licences were statutory responsibilities of the NMDPRA under the Petroleum Industry Act, while stressing that the National Assembly would continue to exercise oversight over the process.

He disclosed that the regulator had committed to completing and rolling out gas distribution licensing in the fourth quarter of 2026, adding that the committee would monitor the implementation.

“Nigerians deserve a gas market that is open, competitive and safe, and investors deserve rules that are clear and stable,” he said.

The lawmaker reaffirmed the House’s commitment to considering petitions from individuals and organisations with genuine concerns about the petroleum sector, saying “each complaint would be assessed on its merits”.