The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Chairman Dr. Sam Amadi has named the four power distribution companies in Nigeria who have accepted to come on board to sign a joint power supply agreement with an aim of wiping out the power out ages in the country. The companies include, Eko, Ikeja, Ibadan and Jos.
The companies will procure power from the country’s main source of electricity plants, which they will later supply to the rest of the country from the on-grid supplies.
According to the current power situation in Nigeria, majority of power distribution companies acquire about 1/3 of power from the main national grid and are resulting to invest toward the off-grid sources to cut the gap. The power from embedded generation sources will help cut the shortfall from on-grid supply currently being experienced.
“Some of them have supplies they want to procure quickly. The one from Egbin is available to be sold to two Distribution Companies (Discos),” he added.
Mr. Abiodun Ajifowobaje, the Managing Director of Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) said the move would provide a fall back measure at situations of unexpected generation drop in the future as well as the consumers demands will be met and satisfied beyond expectations.
He said they expect the regulator to intervene and make sure gas was cheap to embedded power generating firms since the cost of gas was a concern area for these firms – – whether they should buy at government rate or at a market rate. The country has interest in generating embedded power from solar, wind, biomass, diesel, fuel, crude oil and hydro sources to curb shortage. It targets at peak power distribution or supply capacity of 40, 000MW of power by 2020. The country has also interests in generating nuclear power as per the latest agreement with a Russian firm.
