NGO Bemoans Current Scale Of Mini-Grids In Nigeria 

The Nigeria Team Leader of International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development (ICEED), Ewah Eleri has expressed concern over the current scale of mini-grids in Nigeria.  Speaking at the just concluded high-level policy dialogue titled; Sustainability, Inclusiveness, and Governance of Mini-grids in Africa (SIGMA), Eleri pointed out that Nigeria requires at least one million five hundred new connections annually over the next decade to close the current electricity access gap.  According to him, “To meet the scale of the electricity access challenge, Nigeria needs to grow its electricity supply by seven times the current available electricity.  “In capacity terms, we need to expand our electricity supply to 42 gigawatts, almost ten times what is available today. A significant amount of this component must be represented by decentralized renewable energy options.  “It is important that we scale up the ambition for mini-grids in Nigeria to help in closing the current electricity access gap”, he concluded. While presenting the key findings of the research project, Co-Investigator of the project in Nigeria and lecturer at the Centre for Petroleum, Energy Economics and Law at the University of Ibadan, Temilade Sesan, pointed out that Nigeria must re-evaluate the role of market forces and government in delivering electricity access through mini-grids. According to Sesan, “Today, the technical, financial and environmental sustainability of mini-grid development in Nigeria is questionable adding that it is also uncertain that the benefits from the increasing interest in mini-grids are spread evenly, especially as it affects women.”

Transcorp’s generating capacity to hit 1200MW by December

Transcorp Group has said it hopes to raise Nigeria’s power capacity by 300MW by the end of 2023.  Speaking on AriseTV, Group Chief Executive Officer of Transcorp Group, Owen Omogiafo, said that resounding the gas challenge will enable the company to achieve its milestone.  According to the Transcorp GCEO, despite the gas and transmission challenges, the company still witnessed an impressive improvement in its power business in the first six months of this year (2023). “Transcorp has an installed generation capacity of nearly 2000MW, and in the first half of the year, we focused greatly on improving our mechanical available capacity and we took our capacity to about 900MW.  “There were still some challenges with gas and transmission, but notwithstanding that, we saw a great improvement in our power business. Going by the strategy we are working with now, by year end, we will have about 1,200MW of available capacity.” On the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) acquisition, Omogiafo explained that Transcorp as part of a consortium that acquired a 60 per cent stake in AEDC was driven by the need to drive Nigeria’s economic recovery as no industry or sector can operate without power.  Experts have opined that lack of a stable power supply continues to be a drawback to the country’s development.  Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has said that its members spent the sum of N144.5 billion on alternative power sources in 2022.  She noted that the power sector is critical if the country’s real sector is economic growth.