No increase in electricity tariffs, Senate tells NERC

From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye and James Ojo, Abuja

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, has attributed power sector collapse to liquidity issues and vandalism, among others.

This was even as said power generation has risen to 2,900 megawatts after the system collapse left parts of the country in darkness last week.

Briefing State House Correspondents alongside Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, chaired by acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, yesterday, Fashola blamed the situation on lack of payment to gas suppliers, sabotage and shut-down of oil terminals.

He explained that the debts is causing friction between distribution and generation companies.

According to him, apart from sabotage in the western axis of the Niger Delta, the Escravos-Lagos pipeline and the Forcados Export Terminal have been out of operation.

“If you can’t produce oil, you can’t take the gas. The gas is the fuel that the power plants need.

“You have seen what we have been doing in increasing the capacity in firing transmission, but if we don’t have fuel to fire the plants, that is the reason.

“What happens on the grid is that once it goes below 3,000 megawatts, it becomes unstable. It is like in your house, when you have surges, your circuit breakers trip to protect the system.

“So, once it falls below a certain threshold, you then have those trip offs. They are, in a sense, almost necessary to protect the entire system, so, what then happens is startups, we do black starts from various power plants.”

Fashola added that while attempts were on to restart Afam Power Station in Lagos, last week, there was an outbreak of fire, just as it also happened in Kainji, in New Bussa, Niger State.

“So, we are talking with everybody, trying to resolve it. As at Tuesday, we were back to 2,900 megawatts. So, we are building up again, and, very soon you will see some stability. These are setbacks on the road to incremental power, but we will overcome them,” he assured.

The minister said the council approved the completion of Odogunyan transmission substation in Ikorodu, Lagos, to provide additional transformer capacity at the substation with 260 MVA transformers and transmission lines of 132KVA.

This, he said, will complete the works in that area generally known within the power industry as Ayobo west.

He said the initial contract awarded in 2009 was about N3.225 billion, while a revision of N274.3 million to complete it was approved.

This, he said, increased the sum from about N3.2 million to N3.5 million.

Meanwhile Senate, yesterday, said it will resist any move to jerk up tariffs, as canvassed by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) .

Acting chairman of the commission, Dr, Anthony Akah told the Senate Committee on Power that the current tariffs regime can not guarantee stable power supply in the country.

The committee, led by Senator Ben Bruce,  expressed disappointment in the regulatory’s failure to clean up the sector after it was privatised for efficiency.

Senator Bruce said the complaints of the commission, including that government needed to pump a trillion naira into the industry, were a sing song since the sector was privatised.