- Manufacturers Keen to Tap Idle Electricity as Generation Wobbles
Manufacturers in the country have expressed the eagerness to tap the unutilised electricity being produced by the nation’s power plants as the available power generation continues to wobble.
The latest data obtained from the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing on Wednesday showed that the unutilised generation capacity stood at 3,825.7 megawatts as of 6am on July 2, 2018, with 2,341MW due to gas constraints; 151.6MW, line constraints; 1,173.1, frequency management occasioned by distribution companies’ demand, and 160MW as a result of water management issue.
Total power generation fell to 2,979.9MW as of 6am on July 2 from 3,122.5MW the previous day and 3,992.60MW on June 15.
The nation’s power grid has recorded seven total collapses and one partial collapse this year, the data showed.
Nigeria Electricity System Operator put the nation’s installed generation capacity at 11,165.40MW; available capacity at 7,139.60MW; current transmission capacity at 7,000MW; network operational capacity at 5,500MW, and the peak generation ever attained at 5,222.3MW.
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, on May 15, 2017, declared that four categories of eligible power consumers were permitted to purchase electricity directly from the generation companies other than the Discos.
The President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Dr. Frank Jacobs, noted that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission was “quite businesslike in crafting the Eligible Customer Regulations in November 2017”.
He said the minister, at a stakeholders’ meeting on February 13, 2018 in Abuja, affirmed that within the framework of the Eligible Customer Regulations, stranded 2,000MW electric power was available for MAN members to utilise.
According to him, manufacturers in the country currently self-generate as much as 13,000MW through alternative sources of energy in order to stay afloat.
“Members of MAN expended over N129bn on alternative energy generation in 2016 and the cost of alternative electricity generation alone constitutes about 40 per cent of production cost. With such high costs, made-in-Nigeria products will hardly be competitive.”
Jacobs, who commended the government’s efforts at addressing the challenge of inadequate electricity supply at an interactive session on the Eligible Customer Regulations in Lagos, said, “A cursory look at the regulation revealed the existence of some implementation conditions hindering interested manufacturing concerns and other stakeholders on the electricity supply value chain from exploring the perceived benefits therein.”
The Vice President, North West Zone, MAN, Mr. Ibrahim Usman, said, “So far, the government has done very well to ensure that there is a lot of electricity, but a lot of it is not being consumed due to challenges of the transmission network. We (manufacturers) must have electricity that is reliable, constant and at a good price.”
