Concerned about how to bridge the gap between the National Peak Demand Forecast of 19,788Mega Watts (MW) and the Peak Generation of 16th February, 2022, the Federal Government has sought to attain a financially healthy and technically robust Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).
Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET) Plc, Managing Director, Dr. Nneaemeka Ewelukwa disclosed at the weekend during the capacity building workshop for members of Power Correspondents Association (PCAN) and Civil Society Organization in Lagos.
The theme of the workshop was ‘Building knowledge and plugging skills gap in power sector reporting.’
He said, “This mismatch is worrying the government that wants it to match.”
Ewelukwa added that the government’s plan is to keep expanding generation, transmission and distribution capacity to meet the country’s demand.
Noting that the electricity market is a question of ability and willingness to pay for supplied power, he said that it will be critical to ensure that the electricity that will flow in the system is procured.
He insisted that the loan which the Federal Government is investing in the sector must be repaid through payment for consumed energy.
According to him, the distribution companies are improving their performance and facilities to bring the 15,262MW.
On how to bridge the gap, he said: “For you to bridge the gap between Peak Demand and Peak Generation, it speaks to these market reforms because two things need to happen.
“The system must have the ability to physically move that power. Two, if the system can move that additional power and GenCos are to bring that additional power.
“It must be paid for. So, it brings us back to the point I made about a sector that is financially healthy and technically robust.”
He said the critical reforms that the government has embarked on are designed to ensure the financial health of the market and technical capacity to remove the deficit in supply to meet the demand of the country.
According to him, the government has begun the implementation of the transmission expansion plan which works in sync with the FGN/Simens Presidential Power Initiative with phase one 7,000mw, phase two 11,000Mw and phase three 25,000MW supply.
Asked to state the timeline for bridging the Gap, Ewelukwa revealed that “because this government is keen to implement these reforms, to be honest with you, we are having sleepless nights to achieve these. They are milestones. They are targets.”
He recalled that at inception, the NBET took over the Power Purchase Agreements that the defunct Power Holding Company (PHCN) signed with Agip, which had a gas component.
Ewelukwa noted that this is accountable for while the company is involved in the transaction for supplying gas to the Calabar Generation Company.
He explained that NBET’s function in a Transition Electricity Based Market is characterized by a market-based agreement for electricity trading.
Ewelukwa noted that the NBET is designed to be a temporary bridge in the electricity market.
NBET, he said, has a long term role to drive market competition by ensuring that it is moved from a government centres market to a private sector-driven electricity market.
Continuing, he vowed that going forward: “We no longer need to buy power as a central procurer of electricity rather the power we have purchased we will stand the process of handing it over to the DisCos and the GenCos so that the DisCos can now say I want to buy power directly from GenCos.
“We are enthusiastically looking at the point when we will actually start the innovation process of handing over the PPAs we signed to distribution licensees and eligible customers as the case may be.”
