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NERC upbeat on NESI’s N1.5trn market growth projection by 2017

By BusinessNews Staff on April 23, 2014

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has expressed hopes that Nigeria’s emerging electricity market will meet up with the projected N1.5 trillion market value in 2017, from its current value of about N300 billion.

NERC is optimistic that in view of gradual influx of required finance for expansion of capacities in the sector, the Nigerian electricity sector Industry (NESI) will attain the value projection notwithstanding the challenges it is facing currently.

Chairman of NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi, had in 2013 stated that the commission was regulating a sector whose market value was over a staggering amount of N300 billion.

Amadi said with an anticipated upsurge in value by over N1.5 trillion in 2017, the NESI, which “is currently undergoing one of the biggest, most profound and most expensive reform ever to be undertaken by any country in sub-Saharan Africa”, would become a huge regional hub for electricity trading.

He expressed optimism that irrespective of extant challenges that seem threatening to the growth of the sector, the commission was still upbeat on the NESI meeting up with the N1.5 trillion value projections in 2017.

Reforms in NESI, has seen the successful hand over of operations of the successor generation and distribution companies created from the unbundling of defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to private investors.

However, weak transmission and gas constraint have been the major impediments to government’s efforts to achieve steady power supply after the power sector privatisation.

Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo disclosed recently that about 1300 megawatts (MW) of power was lost owing to inadequate to some thermal stations.

“The recent dip in power supply has been mainly due to inadequate gas supply to thermal power plants arising from recurring acts of vandalism on gas pipelines. The ELPS-A (Escravos Lagos Pipeline System) pipeline was out for over seven months with a loss of 200 million standard cubic feet of gas and generation capacity of about 800MW.

The Trans-Forcados is out now with a loss of 200 million standard cubic feet of gas and generation capacity of about 800MW; the Alakiri-Onne LBVS was blasted in March adversely impacting on gas supply to industries; there have been similar attacks on Trans Niger with a loss of 120 million standard cubic of gas and a loss of 500MW from the Afam VI IPP. This pipeline is vandalised for bunkering about twice every month,” Nebo said.

[This Day]

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