Why govt cannot increase electricity tariff-Minister 

Adebayo Adelabu, the minister of power has said that the government cannot immediately implement its plan to electricity electricity tariff, considering the economic realities being faced by Nigerians.

The minister who disclosed this in Abuja on Monday during an oversight visit by the Members of the House of Representatives on Power, said that the government was avoiding policies that could lead to another nationwide protest by Nigerians.

Read also: Nigeria hikes electricity tariff again for bigger consumers as complaints pile

He said, “The mood of the country today is not ripe for raising another tariff other than A, because that was our intention. Band A with at least 20 hours of electricity per day is paying N200/kw while band B with 16 hours of light minimum will pay N140/kw, and band C pay N90, but that is not possible now. The mood of the nation will not permit it.

“We have some a lot of Band B that are enjoying 19-18 hours of light, and just because Band A is enjoying 20-21 hours of light, they are paying N209/kWh while Band B is paying N65. the average cost of generating 1 kilowatt/ hour of electricity today is not less than N120.

“So anybody paying N65 or N58 is paying way below the cost and that is what the federal government is still subsidising.”

According to the minister, efforts were ongoing by the government to accelerate the infrastructure in the sector to migrate as much as possible, more customers to band A. He added that the country, for the first time in three years has achieved generation, transmission, and distribution of 5,155.99 megawatts of power.

‘’Precisely on the 8th of August, 2024. When this administration came in, we met an average of 4,000 megawatts of power being generated and transmitted. So I believe that 5,000 megawatts is not something we should celebrate. But if you look at it from the perspective of 5,000 megawatts, 2,000 megawatts were achieved in 1984, for Nigeria. It took us over 35 years to achieve an additional 2,000 megawatts that took us to 4,000.”

Also, hosting the house committee, Sule Abdulaziz, the chief executive officer of the Transmission Company of Nigeria identified lack of funds to complete projects, ageing equipment, and infrastructure vandalization among others as major factors challenging the effective transmission of electricity in Nigeria.

According to the CEO, with ongoing efforts such as increasing grid visibility through expansion, maintenance, and management plans, TCN is confident in achieving a stable, efficient, and robust grid network, despite existing challenges.

He noted that the TCN has implemented effective frequency control mechanisms to maintain grid stability and power quality, adding that through optimized load balancing techniques, TCN has reduced the instances of partial and full system collapses, ensuring a consistent and reliable power supply to consumers.

“TCN has commenced the implementation of the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems that will enable real-time monitoring and control of the power grid. This technological advancement will significantly improve grid stability, reduce transmission losses, and allow for quicker response to faults.

“TCN has embarked on aggressive digital transformation using internal homegrown solutions and vendor-procured applications.

“Challenges in the sector include a lot of uncompleted projects, lack of funds to complete projects, payment of compensation for acquisition of transmission lines Right of Way (RoW) for various projects across the country.

Others are manual operations, ageing equipment, transmission infrastructure vandalization, financial issues due to discos non-payment, interface challenges with DISCOs, no modern tools like helicopter and drones for transmission lines surveillance, issues with port clearance,” he said.

He also noted the inability of the Federal Ministry of Finance to pay its counterpart funding, which he said is leading to delays in the implementation of the donor-funded projects since implementation is dependent on the release of the counterpart funds.