#FACT

Do you know that Aso Rock and the 36 States government houses are powered daily by generators?
Do you know that Federal and State Secretariats nationwide are powered daily by generators?
Do you know that all National and State events in Nigeria are powered by generators?
Do you that ninety per cent of churches in Nigeria run their services with generators?
Do you know that the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company power their office with generator?
Do you know that Nigerians use more petrol on generators than cars?
Do you know that Nigerians spend N3.5 trillion on fuelling their gen­erators annually?
Do you know that the Nigerian manu­facturing sector spends over N800billion yearly on genera­tors while Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, banks, other corporate entities and traders across the country spend over N2 trillion to run generators?
Do you know that Airports in Nigeria spend about N100million to power its facilities on genera­tors?
Do you know that Nigeria currently supplies 300megawatts to Togo, Benin and Niger Republic?
Do you know that Ghana receives in excess of 140 million standard cubic feet per day of gas from Nigeria?

The rough business climate has forced many companies to close shops, while the sur­viving ones are retrenching workers daily.
Recently, the Organised La­bour raised an alarm that the food, beverage and tobacco sector of the nation was on the verge of shutting down and that over three million jobs were at risk due to the inability of companies to meet the crip­pling cost of production.
Already, leading compa­nies in the sector such as Ni­gerian Flour Mills, Nigerian Breweries, Guinness, Nige­rian Bottling Company, 7-UP Bottling Company, Friesland Campina Wamco, among oth­ers, have written to labour for discussions on planned sack of workers.
The companies listed their challenges to include acute forex shortage, poor power supply from the generation and distribution companies, scarce and costly fuel to run their generators, among oth­ers.
Investigation has revealed that in the last three months, no fewer than 1,500 workers had been sacked in the food and beverage sector as em­ployers seek ways of coping with strangulating operational costs with over three million other jobs un­der threat.

Nigeria, oh my Nigeria!!

Which way Naija?

Hmmmmmm

OMG! NO 1 is so shameful

ammyluv2002:
OMG! NO 1 is so shameful

Very pathetic situation we have in our hands!

Pathetic administration through the ages. There are simple solutions like multi-grid solution along with using the abundant resources available. The transmission loss across country is as high as 35%. It's a wonder how Nigeria became top economy in Africa dispute being so backward.

The past 3 weeks ,they flash the light for 2 seconds everyday in my area,still trying to understand why they do this.

Pharaoh9:
Op , what's the secret of constant power supply in other countries that Nigeria don't know?

Why is our own different

I know you directed question at op but I like to answer since I read this topic alot.

1. Regulations of electricity market for many years creating many distortions on market. Then nigerians have issue allowing free market to work. (They want failed governmen to run industry)

2. Natonal grid is in disrepair like refineries. The transmission loss is as high as 35%.

3. The foolish regulations that have us sharing. Just like federal allocation system it makes many states lazy because they don't benefit from their work. Instead of generating power locally where it most beneficial it's shared and lost on bad lines.

4. Pipelines vandalism.

5. Our hydro power is very intermittent and we have to kick back a sizable percentage to our northern neighbor Niger so they don't block the dam up north.

6. Untapped resources of coal power. Then Buhari went to sign climate bill.

7. We simply don't have political will. Instead of fixing issue they use generator for decades.

8. The wrong people are appointed the position of power minister. Instead of have a competent electrical or power engineer as head. We get a Lawyer by trade to do it. Lawyers are smart but the aren't enginers. Would you appoint enginer to be Attorney general or Supreme Court Justice?

9. We don't know how much power the country really needs or uses.

I could list solutions but you didn't for that.

Pharaoh9:
Op , what's the secret of constant power supply in other countries that Nigeria don't know?

Why is our own different

Dats a million dollar question you're asking there. But I think it should boil down to sincerity and commitment on de part of government.

Phelicx:
#FACT

Do you know that Aso Rock and the 36 States government houses are powered daily by generators?
Do you know that Federal and State Secretariats nationwide are powered daily by generators?
Do you know that all National and State events in Nigeria are powered by generators?
Do you that ninety per cent of churches in Nigeria run their services with generators?
Do you know that the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company power their office with generator?
Do you know that Nigerians use more petrol on generators than cars?
Do you know that Nigerians spend N3.5 trillion on fuelling their gen­erators annually?
Do you know that the Nigerian manu­facturing sector spends over N800billion yearly on genera­tors while Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, banks, other corporate entities and traders across the country spend over N2 trillion to run generators?
Do you know that Airports in Nigeria spend about N100million to power its facilities on genera­tors?
Do you know that Nigeria currently supplies 300megawatts to Togo, Benin and Niger Republic?
Do you know that Ghana receives in excess of 140 million standard cubic feet per day of gas from Nigeria?

The rough business climate has forced many companies to close shops, while the sur­viving ones are retrenching workers daily.
Recently, the Organised La­bour raised an alarm that the food, beverage and tobacco sector of the nation was on the verge of shutting down and that over three million jobs were at risk due to the inability of companies to meet the crip­pling cost of production.
Already, leading compa­nies in the sector such as Ni­gerian Flour Mills, Nigerian Breweries, Guinness, Nige­rian Bottling Company, 7-UP Bottling Company, Friesland Campina Wamco, among oth­ers, have written to labour for discussions on planned sack of workers.
The companies listed their challenges to include acute forex shortage, poor power supply from the generation and distribution companies, scarce and costly fuel to run their generators, among oth­ers.
Investigation has revealed that in the last three months, no fewer than 1,500 workers had been sacked in the food and beverage sector as em­ployers seek ways of coping with strangulating operational costs with over three million other jobs un­der threat.

Nigeria, oh my Nigeria!!

Which way Naija?

Well the way to go is to completely decentralize energy production and distribution. Let each local govt build there own power plant and provide electricity to there denizens. If a local govt can't afford to build one then let it join with other surrounding local govts to build there own plant.
If the communities still can't afford to do this then they should find a way to give people solar panels for there individual homes that way everyone has electricity even if they are not on the grid.

This centralized model we have been practicing for decades where electricity is generated and distributed by the fed govt to the rest of the country (NEPA) is obsolete. It might have worked back in the day when the population was small but using this same model in a country that's over an estimated 180 million is just bad policy.
http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=electricity_in_the_United_States

Nigeria is finished.

@ op why is that some areas have electricity than others with the exception of industrialized areas
2. Why is that during thunderstorms electricity goes off and takes some time to be restored in some areas whereas others are restored within 2 mins

Decentralization is answer. Some state has power to generate enough electricity for their people if not for unfriendly extant laws.

So far the performance of power ministry has defile the minister.

Blue3k:


I know you directed question at op but I like to answer since I read this topic alot.

1. Regulations of electricity market for many years creating many distortions on market. Then nigerians have issue allowing free market to work. (They want failed governmen to run industry)

2. Natonal grid is in disrepair like refineries. The transmission loss is as high as 35%.

3. The foolish regulations that have us sharing. Just like federal allocation system it makes many states lazy because they don't benefit from their work. Instead of generating power locally where it most beneficial it's shared and lost on bad lines.

4. Pipelines vandalism.

5. Our hydro power is very intermittent and we have to kick back a sizable percentage to our northern neighbor Niger so they don't block the dam up north.

6. Untapped resources of coal power. Then Buhari went to sign climate bill.

7. We simply don't have political will. Instead of fixing issue they use generator for decades.

8. The wrong people are appointed the position of power minister. Instead of have a competent electrical or power engineer as head. We get a Lawyer by trade to do it. Lawyers are smart but the aren't enginers. Would you appoint enginer to be Attorney general or Supreme Court Justice?

9. We don't know how much power the country really needs or uses.

I could list solutions but you didn't for that.

10. Lack of industrial estates to help reduce transmission line distances
11. Corruption with PHCN

[quote author=Sibrah post=51358771][/quote]

Add words to mention.

While you've made some valid points, the following is simply wrong.

Blue3k:

3. The foolish regulations that have us sharing. Just like federal allocation system it makes many states lazy because they don't benefit from their work. Instead of generating power locally where it most beneficial it's shared and lost on bad lines.

The notion that power must be generated where it is used makes no sense, and isn't practiced anywhere in the world with a working power sector. This idea flies right in the face of the principle of comparative advantage, and if you take it to its proper conclusion, then everybody supplying their own power through generators would make the most sense - but that is what Nigerians are already doing!

6. Untapped resources of coal power. Then Buhari went to sign climate bill.

Apart from the fact that coal is highly polluting, and one would have to be pretty stupid to want to live anywhere near a coal plant, the reason Nigerian coal goes unexploited is the same reason why all of Nigeria's other mineral resources aren't being extracted - private investment is discouraged by the FG's insistence on retaining the lion's share of revenues, and the refusal to grant property rights to investors. In civilized countries, a private company buys some land and then pays reasonable taxes on the profits it makes from mining it, but not in Nigeria, where the government insists it own any resources found even on private land. In short, Buhari's signing of the climate bill made no difference here.

8. The wrong people are appointed the position of power minister. Instead of have a competent electrical or power engineer as head. We get a Lawyer by trade to do it. Lawyers are smart but the aren't enginers. Would you appoint enginer to be Attorney general or Supreme Court Justice?

Again, this is a nonsensical notion, and not at all in conformity with how things are done in well-run countries. For example, George Osborne was Britain's chancellor of the exchequer, but he only studied history at university. The idea that an engineer would have any special insight in this field simply makes no sense, as the root of the problems are political and economic, not technical.

The problem with Nigeria's power sector isn't a lack of technical expertise within the GENCOs and DISCOs, but the refusal of the FG to pay its N300 billion in debts, its refusal to either sell TCN or allow private companies to create their own independent distribution networks, and the same government's refusal to allow the power companies full freedom to set their rates as they see fit (this year's runaway inflation has already cancelled any benefit they got from the last price increase Fashola let through).

Fashola's legal expertise has in fact proven very handy in helping settle many of the long-standing lawsuits the GENCOs and DISCOs had filed against the FG, but the FG still doesn't have the funds at hand to pay its debts (not that it was paying them even during the days when oil was $140/barrel), and Buhari doesn't have the political will to push for legislation allowing free market pricing of electricity; neither of these problems will go away even if the minister in charge has a PhD in electrical engineering.

davidif:


Well the way to go is to completely decentralize energy production and distribution. Let each local govt build there own power plant and provide electricity to there denizens. If a local govt can't afford to build one then let it join with other surrounding local govts to build there own plant.

No, this is not the way to go - again, if you take this line of thinking to its logical conclusion, it ends with each house having its own generator, which is where we already are. Electricity generation is a business which is heavily capital intensive and has huge advantages of scale: it makes no sense doing it on a local-government level.

The right way to go is to allow private operators to invest in their own independent power distribution networks as they see fit, and to give them the freedom to set their own prices as they please. The only restrictions would be generally applicable technical ones, e.g. that the power delivered at retail be 220V AC, etc. If some private operators wanted to feed into/from other operators' networks, that would be up to them to determine if it made financial sense. Only a setup like this will make it financially worthwhile for private companies to pour in the billions of dollars of investment needed to give Nigeria a properly functioning power sector.

omohayek:
The notion that power must be generated where it is used makes no sense, and isn't practiced anywhere in the world with a working power sector. This idea flies right in the face of the principle of comparative advantage, and if you take it to its proper conclusion, then everybody supplying their own power through generators would make the most sense - but that is what Nigerians are already doing!

Actually it does it shows you haven't heard of concept of micro grids. Then what I mean by locally is that in Nigeria the power is fed to the national grid the redistributed back with lesser benefit. The principles of comparative advantage advocate if this location is best allow then to do power generation. Nothing I said goes against that. You generator example contridicted that because small scale generator isn't as effective as power plants.

I'm not saying every place should generate their own power I said power that generated show natural be fed to location closet to source first. Then towards other futher locations. As we both now as electrity travels through power libed there's loss. In most countries it's 3%-5%. In Nigeria as high as 35%.

omohayek:
Apart from the fact that coal is highly polluting, and one would have to be pretty stupid to want to live anywhere near a coal plant, the reason Nigerian coal goes unexploited is the same reason why all of Nigeria's other mineral resources aren't being extracted - private investment is discouraged by the FG's insistence on retaining the lion's share of revenues, and the refusal to grant property rights to investors. In civilized countries, a private company buys some land and then pays reasonable taxes on the profits it makes from mining it, but not in Nigeria. In short, Buhari's signing of the climate bill made no difference here.

Coal is cheap effective and with most countries the pollutants coal realeses is mainly CO2 and and water vapor with trace amounts of other toxins. This is why Asia and most of West uses this.

The mineral property rights are non existent in Nigeria. Hence why you get certificate of occupancy. The mineral and land rights are in exclusive domain of federal government. I do agree with later points and mentioned it on my other post.

Buhari signing climate change bill could have effect on future production. Hence why Kemi mentioned it I believe. (Maybe I'm remembering wrong)

omohayek:
Again, this is a nonsensical notion, and not at all in conformity with how things are done in well-run countries. For example, George Osborne was Britain's chancellor of the exchequer, but he only studied history at university. The idea that an engineer would have any special insight in this field simply makes no sense, as the root of the problems are political and economic, not technical.

The problem with Nigeria's power sector isn't a lack of technical expertise within the GENCOs and DISCOs, but the refusal of the FG to pay its N300 billion in debts, its refusal to either sell PHCN or allow private companies to create their own independent distribution networks, and the same government's refusal to allow the power companies full freedom to set their rates as they see fit (this year's runaway inflation has already cancelled any benefit they got from the last price increase Fashola let through).

Fashola's legal expertise has in fact proven very handy in helping settle many of the long-standing lawsuits the GENCOs and DISCOs had filed against the FG, but the FG still doesn't have the funds at hand to pay its debts (not that it was paying them even during the days when oil was $140/barrel), and Buhari doesn't have the political will to push for legislation allowing free market pricing of electricity; neither of these problems will go away even if the minister in charge has a PhD in electrical engineering.

I can name you just as many examples where the person holding job had pretty close qualifications for post. In the US the department of energy head is Ernest Moniz has experience in energy related studies.

The root is economic I agree. Free market I think I mentioned that already. Or maybe on different post.


The other problems are technicall with transmission of the power. The power plants not operating at full capacity are technical issues as well. That's a nit pick but yeah.

Anyway your response was reasonable.

....And I stand to. ask , " can't the nation do the needful by changing the laws and opening the sector for competition even if the masses will suffer for a short time."

omohayek:


No, this is not the way to go - again, if you take this line of thinking to its logical conclusion, it ends with each house having its own generator, which is where we already are. Electricity generation is a business which is heavily capital intensive and has huge advantages of scale: it makes no sense doing it on a local-government level.

The right way to go is to allow private operators to invest in their own independent power distribution networks as they see fit, and to give them the freedom to set their own prices as they please. The only restrictions would be generally applicable technical ones, e.g. that the power delivered at retail be 220V AC, etc. If some private operators wanted to feed into/from other operators' networks, that would be up to them to determine if it made financial sense. Only a setup like this will make it financially worthwhile for private companies to pour in the billions of dollars of investment needed to give Nigeria a properly functioning power sector.

What I meant was that each local govt should find a way to provide electricity to its citizenry. They can reach an agreement with an energy provider and contract it out to them.
They can use whatever natural resources they have to generate electricity. For example, if you live in the Niger Delta then you can build a power plant that uses natural gas if you live in coal country then they can award a contract to a company to build a coal powered generating plant.

Not all your points are correct ...I know some state houses dat rarely use gen....one am very sure of is state of osun ....their state house usually have up to 20 hours light...you can verify yourself...also try not to generalize too much,have you being to all secretariats ,churches and state houses before?.....Nigeria light situation is bad,and I hope they find a solution soon..but if you thing everywhere in nigeria experience such scenario,you are joking...kindly visit chevron estate at lekki.....

Blue3k:


I know you directed question at op but I like to answer since I read this topic alot.

1. Regulations of electricity market for many years creating many distortions on market. Then nigerians have issue allowing free market to work. (They want failed governmen to run industry)

2. Natonal grid is in disrepair like refineries. The transmission loss is as high as 35%.

3. The foolish regulations that have us sharing. Just like federal allocation system it makes many states lazy because they don't benefit from their work. Instead of generating power locally where it most beneficial it's shared and lost on bad lines.

4. Pipelines vandalism.

5. Our hydro power is very intermittent and we have to kick back a sizable percentage to our northern neighbor Niger so they don't block the dam up north.

6. Untapped resources of coal power. Then Buhari went to sign climate bill.

7. We simply don't have political will. Instead of fixing issue they use generator for decades.

8. The wrong people are appointed the position of power minister. Instead of have a competent electrical or power engineer as head. We get a Lawyer by trade to do it. Lawyers are smart but the aren't enginers. Would you appoint enginer to be Attorney general or Supreme Court Justice?

9. We don't know how much power the country really needs or uses.

I could list solutions but you didn't for that.

I dont completely agree with Number 8 on your list for at least the Nigerian case. Over 90% of the problems bedevilling the power sector in Nigeria today aren't really technical, rather they are administrative issues.

Heads of agencies, the minister for state, permanent secretaries etc under the power ministry may need to be technocrats, and whilst it will be a nice-to-have thing for an engineer to be the power minister, the most important requirement for the Nigerian situation is someone who is intelligent and with the ability to think and organise and mediate on the thousands of legal and other disputes which have stalled the progress of the power sector over the years. In summary, what the sector needs is a good administrator.

Another fact - power privatisation would not solve the problem! http://www.naijiant.com/guestcolumn/privatisation-of-phcn-is-fraud-electricity-union/

Bros, I like ur thinking pattern. You seem to know a lot abt electricity.

Where do u stay? We mite have a collabo on a power project. I'd like to have you on my team. Will you be interested?

Blue3k:


I know you directed question at op but I like to answer since I read this topic alot.

1. Regulations of electricity market for many years creating many distortions on market. Then nigerians have issue allowing free market to work. (They want failed governmen to run industry)

2. Natonal grid is in disrepair like refineries. The transmission loss is as high as 35%.

3. The foolish regulations that have us sharing. Just like federal allocation system it makes many states lazy because they don't benefit from their work. Instead of generating power locally where it most beneficial it's shared and lost on bad lines.

4. Pipelines vandalism.

5. Our hydro power is very intermittent and we have to kick back a sizable percentage to our northern neighbor Niger so they don't block the dam up north.

6. Untapped resources of coal power. Then Buhari went to sign climate bill.

7. We simply don't have political will. Instead of fixing issue they use generator for decades.

8. The wrong people are appointed the position of power minister. Instead of have a competent electrical or power engineer as head. We get a Lawyer by trade to do it. Lawyers are smart but the aren't enginers. Would you appoint enginer to be Attorney general or Supreme Court Justice?

9. We don't know how much power the country really needs or uses.

I could list solutions but you didn't for that.

obongitiad:
Bros, I like ur thinking pattern. You seem to know a lot abt electricity.

Where do u stay? We mite have a collabo on a power project. I'd like to have you on my team. Will you be interested?

I stay in Texas. I'm currently in school still studying electrical engineering. I would love to contribute if I can.

Wow! Dats nice. Tot u were in naija. Anyway lets see how it goes. Thanks

Blue3k:


I stay in Texas. I'm currently in school still studying electrical engineering. I would love to contribute if I can.