BARBARA BAKO, Abuja
The dedicated 2,000 megawatts to tackle the real sector’s lingering power challenges still remain on hold, three years after the initiative owing to the unresolved dispute arising from a N29 billion electricity bill between the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and Power Companies.
The idea to assist the real sector purchase directly from generating companies came in 2014 and both the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and MAN in October 2015, set up a Nine-man committee on industrial cluster to handle the issue
The committee which is supposed to be private sector driven with regulatory guidance from NERC comprises Engineer Reginald Odiah, Engineer Ibrahim Usman, Nkoli Anyam, Ijeama Ezeasor, Engineer Chinedum Ukabiala, Engineer Abdul Bello Mohammed, Dr Abdulsalam Yusuf as well as Trade and Industry representatives ..
The terms of reference for the embedded power generation and micro-grid for industrial clusters according to the President of MAN, Dr Frank Jacob include; development of policy and regulatory framework models for viable and feasible micro-grid, development of business models for prioritising the financial viability of micro-grid technologies within existing framework and identifying relevant stakeholders and key interest groups and describe what they will likely contribute to the micro-grid industrial cluster initiative.
It also includes development of a framework for grid interface, evacuation agreement, purchase obligation as well as encouragement of renewable energy sources based projects. This is in addition to identifying eligible existing incentives and to design special concession for innovative micro-grid projects that converts waste to energy.
Three years after however, the dispute arising from the refusal of members of the association to offset a N29 billion electricity bill which arose from the Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) subsisting then has held it up.
The debts owe to MAN’s directives to its members nationwide to ignore the 2015 Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) which the trade association said was too expensive and would lead to closure of many businesses.
The association which went to court to obtain an injunction restraining NERC and DISCOs from implementing the new tariff regime, claimed that the Discos and NERC allegedly refused to abide with order.
Director-General of MAN, Segun Ajayi-Kadir said the crippling N29 billion debt dispute has held up the execution of the 2000 megawatts
“By the last count, I was told that cumulatively, manufacturers owe the Discos N29 billion and that is absolutely a crazy figure.
“We want the government to intervene and find an amicable solution to the issue so that the 2,000 megawatts that manufacturers ought to benefit from would be released and not hindered by this court process.
“The government can also pick up part of the bill as a matter of urgency to bail out the sector,” Ajayi-Kadir said.
With the dispute, Director-General said that the Eligible Customer Policy evolved by the government might not have the desired impact on the manufacturing sector due to the unresolved N29 billion debt issue.
He said that the policy would not work because MAN was told that for it to access the eligible customer scheme it must have a no debt bill with the Discos.
Ajayi-Kadir said that although these measures were meant to assist the manufacturing sector, the government should ensure factors militating against their workability, such as the debt issue, were tackled.
According to him, the current administration has done a lot, but MAN still expects the government to make more efforts to allowing these initiatives to work, particularly in the areas of power.
“It is a dilemma for us in the manufacturing sector because the cost of power is high and we have inadequate supply.
“I believe that government should work more on generation, particularly distribution. The Discos are challenged and they have enumerated quite a lot of challenges that are militating against their effective performance.
“The government needs to remove the impediments with the Discos by intervening in the process of out of court settlement and also help them with their distribution challenges,” Ajayi-Kadir said
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