The Nigerian Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers has urged the Federal Government to embark on audit of all power infrastructure assets in the country.
This disclosure was made by its President, Felix Olu in a communique, made available to the Press on Sunday, during a one-day conference organised by the institute in Abuja, according to The Punch.
Although Nigeria’s Electricity Regulatory Commission had recently increased electricity tariff by 231 per cent for category A consumers. it is revealed not just that, DisCos have continued to struggle to meet the requirement of services to Band A customers but also to have neglected Band B to E customers. The poor electricity supply in the country remains unresolved.
The Institute indicated said to address the reliability and market imbalance problems, there was a systemic problem in the power sector which required an adjustment of its market rules.
Olu said, “The problems within the power sector include transmission infrastructure capacity, inefficient quality service, as well as the unwillingness of DISCOs to accept loads, the private investor’s reluctance to invest in the power businesses and astronomical aggregated technical and commercial losses and technical auditing of all power infrastructure and assets in Nigeria (Gencos, Transco & Discos) must be carried out in earnest.
“There is no strict compliance on rule-based market design with strong penalties for defaulters, noting that the Electricity Act 2023 is silent on the handling of excess or insufficient power from the individual states and is not explicit on assigned roles for the Transmission Company of Nigeria.”
In addition, he explained that “Bottlenecks experienced in smart prepaid meter acquisition and deployment must be removed, including the engagement of local meter manufacturers just as the deployment of smart prepaid meters to customers, by meter asset providers, must be strictly in compliance with relevant statutory regulatory instruments.
“Also, technical auditing of all power infrastructure and assets in Nigeria (Gencos, Transco & Discos) must be carried out, just as the drastic reduction of distribution (ATC&C) and transmission losses to 10 per cent and 5 per cent respectively by 31st December 2024 should be achieved.”
He called on the government to set up a powerful technical committee to examine the unbundling proposal and develop an efficient, homegrown road map.
