Inefficient Discos May Go Over Epileptic Power Supply.
TITUS ALLI, Abuja
Owing to the failure of the various Discos in the country, the Ministry has forwarded a memo to FEC to decide the fate of electricity distribution companies (Discos) that have failed to honour their commitments to buy and distribute adequate power generated for them by the generation companies (GENCOs)
“There is a lot of work to be done in distribution companies and the government is now willing to take up the matter immediately
“The government cannot continue to subsidize what they are doing. They collect 3,000 megawatts and pay for only 1,000 megawatts, that is 15 percent of what they are collecting, so government is the one completing the payment. So we cannot continue like that.
“So if they are ready to continue, fine but if they are not ready to continue maybe they should give way to whoever that is ready to come and invest. So we are asking government to review and see if they are capable and give way if they are not”.
The power generation companies have capacity to generate 13,000 megawatts, but Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) can only transmit 7, 000 megawatts, while the Discos take only 3000 megawatts and pay government money for just 1000 megawatts.
“ We cannot continue to subsidize power distribution, so I have made recommendations to FEC on the next line of action.”
He explained that the Discos do not evacuate all of the about 13,000 megawatts generated by the Gencos, and while 7,000 megawatts out of this is transmitted, the Gencos managed to eventually pay for only 15 percent of the 3,000 megawatts they are able to distribute.
The implication is technical and economic losses as the Gencos do not get value for the electricity they generate and the end consumers also do not get adequate electricity despite the output of the Gencos, the Minister said.
Although he declined to give details of his recommendations to FEC, Mamman stressed that in view of the situation, the DisCos may have to quit and give way to more capable operators if they are not able to fulfil their obligations as agreed with government.
“The DisCos are the ones manning the distribution, that is why I have submitted my observations to the government, it is left for the government that will have to decide. We just have to sit and see whether they are capable, have the technical know how, because most of the problems we are having today is the loss- technical loss and commercial loss.
“They will give you light and may not collect your money or they will collect the money and pocket it, or they may send light and you may not have good sub-station that may collect this power and distribute to customers. This has been our major problem and it is the responsibility of the DisCos to take care of that end.”
Part of the deliberations of the meeting was memo from the Ministry of Works according to the Minister of State for Works, Abubakar Aliyu, for augmenting an ongoing road project from Benin-Adumagbe-Igba-Akure Road in Edo and Ondo States, at the cost of N4,770,189,493
The contract which was a legacy project having being awarded in December 2013 and the current administration has decided to continue and complete all ongoing projects.
“The project was stopped for lack of funding, and now that the contractor wants to continue, the bill has to be reviewed. We have reviewed the contract from the original sum of N3,297,221,221.90 to N4,770,188,497, inclusive of VAT and tax, an increase of about N1.48 billion”.
Water Resources Minister, Suleiman Adamu, also got FEC approval for augmentation and variation of Tada Shonga Irrigation Project sited in Shonga in Kwara State.
The project was started in 2010, but abandoned is now being revived because of its huge potential for irrigation and especially for rice production capacity of 1500 hectares to 2,300 hectares of irrigation.
FEC approved its augmentation to N10.18b, from the original N6.9b with the completion period of 36 months. The variation will affect 700 hectares increase, plus 2 megawatt solar power plant to replace the diesel power plant that was in the original design
This project is located in the Niger River Basin. Between the Rivers Niger and Benue Basins, we have potentials for about 1.8 million hectares for irrigation and we’ve been trying to encourage the private sector to also join us in developing this huge areas with great potentials for agriculture and this is one step forward towards developing the irrigation.”
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