Adebayo Adelabu, the minister of power has announced a 25 percent increase the Nigeria’s power generation, stating that this has occurred within one year of his appointment to head the ministry.
Adelabu disclosed this at the inaugural meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Power Sector Working Group held in Abuja on wednesday.
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According to him, the power sector remains a major driver of the national economic growth, stressing on the need for collaboration in tackling the challenges that could hinder the power sector from achieving full potential.
He said, “The President meant his words that he would give us all the support, all the backings and the inspirations we require to turn around this sector. He has kept his word since he assumed office.
“The improvement we have witnessed in the power sector is not unconnected to the backing and support of the President to all the policies and all the activities of the Ministry. And we are grateful for all the support. Just few days ago, July 27 specifically, we successfully generated and transmitted 5105 megawatts of Power, the highest ever witnessed in the last three years.
“The capacity before now had always hovered around 4000megawatts or below. But within a year of taking over, we have had about 25 percent increase. We are actually on the track towards achieving the President’s instruction to us that by the end of December, we must achieve a landmark generation and transmission of 6000 megawatts.”
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Speaking on the mandate of the ministerial working group, the Minister noted that the generation, transmission and distribution of power cannot be left alone to the Ministry and its agencies adding that there are lots of supportive ministries without which the sector’s mandate cannot be achieved.
According to him, presently, 75 percent of Nigeria’s power generation comes from power gas plants while about 25 percent comes from the hydro-electric power plants. “We have our large and small dams everywhere and we are still counting. At the same, we are focusing on generating power in a sustainable and environment-friendly manner. This is why we talk about renewables, through solar, wind and small dams, from this, you will know that the Ministry of Water resources is key to the success of the power sector and they have been doing wonderfully well. That is why they had to be part of the Inter-ministerial power sector team.
“We will not only focus on generation and transmission but also distribute it to the doorsteps of households, of businesses, of institutions and of industries in Nigeria. So that they can feel the reforms and transformation in the power sector.
“We now felt we needed to bring ourselves together in a formal, official setting where all these issues would be discussed and everybody would be on the same page.”
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Noting that thermal generation goes with Gas, Adelabu stated that gas availability in terms of quality and transportation is key to the continued usage of the power plants. “The problem we had in January and February that led to shut down of Generating Companies (GENCOS) and blackout was due to short supply of gas in terms of quality and quantity, including pipeline vandalization. The Petroleum resource ministry is key to the raw material we need to generate over 70 percent of power in the country. So if we do not cooperate, we do not collaborate, we do not partner, success would be far in the power sector, that is why we the Minister of State, Gas as a key member of this committee.
“We are migrating to more environmentally-friendly energy sources from our natural environmental- from sunshine, small dams, desert and offshore wind and supporting us in this regard is the Federal Ministry of Environment.”
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