Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos now relies on off-grid electricity generation through fuel generators for over 80 percent of electricity as the country’s creaking grid plunges large swaths of the populace in darkness.
Olalere Odusote, Commissioner, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Lagos State, said this situation justified the State’s efforts to create its own power market.
Odusote said Lagos state is coming up with a law that will give teeth to the policy and also create institutions by such a law to enable proper regulation of electricity in the state.
“We are currently working on a law for the policy, and are expected to pass this law before the end of the year,” Odusote said at the 67th Power Dialogue, organised by Nextier themed ‘Towards a Decentralised Electricity Market (Lagos State Electricity Policy).’
In a bid to decentralise electricity in the country, Lagos state said it is in the works to pass the law to support its recently launched electricity policy by the end of 2022.
A development that will see the centre of excellence take charge of its electricity generation, transmission, and distribution.
This was on the back of inadequate power supply that has haunted the country and its citizen for years.
Supporting the position of the commissioner, Bunmi Folayan, Senior Specialist, Power Sector Recovery Operations (PSRP) said data from the Lagos State Electricity Board showed that 15 gigawatts of power are generated from off-grid fuel generation sources, as the grid only meets about ten percent of the state demand.
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The commissioner bemoaned the state’s current dependence on off-grid power generation, transmission, and distribution.
“More than 80 percent of the power that supplies the state at any point in time is from off-grid generation,” he said. “With the grid providing a small part of this.”
Furthermore, the Commissioner reiterates the importance of how this law and regulation will attract investments.
“In little step at a time, we are going to see the better supply of electricity and more supportive regulation from Lagos that will enable the growth of the sector.
“And the growth of the sector means attracting significant investment into the sector by providing some certainty of regulation and also investor-friendly policy,” he said.
In December 2021, Lagos State Electricity Policy was launched and designed to steer investors into its independent power market.
It was noted that under the policy, the state government will establish an autonomous regulatory agency that will license participants to undertake market monitoring and ensure that prices charged by market participants are cost-reflective and fair to end-users.
Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos State Governor, while unveiling the policy said his team believes that this engagement and this policy will be a significant milestone towards improving electricity.
“I believe that this electricity policy will be a working road map that will lead to proper execution,” he said.
