The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Proton Energy, Mr Oti Ikomi has advised the Nigerian government on the fresh impetus needed to scale up power generation, transmission and investment in the country.
According to him, latest reports by the National Electricity Regulator Commission (NERC) have shown improvement in certain fundamentals of the power sectors, however, Nigeria still needs to do more in key areas like the regular availability of power, financial sustainability and renewable energy among others.
On March 1, 2021, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) disclosed that the power sector recorded national peak generation of 5,801 megawatts (MW).
Ikomi, an energy expert who spoke during an interview session on CNBC AFRICA stated that the peak power generation of 5801 MW was significant, but noted that the sector needs to generate more in order to meet the needs of Nigerians and guarantee sustainable investment in the country energy sector.
According to him, the Federal Government in collaboration with Germany had set up a Presidential Power Initiative aimed at enhancing the capacity of the power sector to generate more power.
Ikomi also disclosed that the initiative targets 7,000MW generation by the end of 2021, while 11,000MW will be generated by 2023 and 25,000Mw will be generated by 2025.
The CEO of Proton Energy also noted that the initiative hasn’t been going as planned, following the stalemate in the implementation of the policies drafted by the Presidential Power Initiative.
He added that a proper implementation of the initiative would help to reduce the financial losses often incurred from the aggregate technical transmission losses.
According to the latest NERC quarterly report, the losses incurred due to technical, billing and collection efficiency in the power sector stood at 49.16%.
He, however, urged all the parties involved to speed up the implementation and work with the power and finance ministry to get adequate funds and support for the undertaking.
In his words, “There is a presidential power initiative, which is a joint Initiative between Nigeria and the German Government. The Federal Government has also set up a company late last year to handle this initiative. The plan is to get 7000Mw within one year and then by 2023, 11,000Mw and 2025, 25,000Mw.
“There is alot of inefficiencies since about 40%, what is called aggregate technical transmission losses on the system and this initiative is supposed to reduce that. But what is key is that it needs to move faster, the implementation has been slowed down. I will encourage all the parties involved to speed up. Yes, there is an improved generation of power in the country, but we still need to build alot of new generation into the pipeline and we have to do it in a hurry because alot of our generation area gas-fired and the international communities are moving away from that to renewable energy. So we need a combination of renewable and also need to get the gas-fired generation on grip. I encourage all the parties in Abuja to move on the conversation to the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Power, so that the financial enhancement can come in speedily.”
