Nuclear Power for Electricity: Time to get the parameters right for change in narratives
Electricity in Nigeria has remained on the wanting list of poor infrastructural profile. The deficits in the power sector have been too deep seated as efforts over time to make epileptic power supply in the Country have continued to rove around the circle of dormancy. Against the noise of ongoing works, problems of the power sector have not seen Nigerians enjoying better conditions in the service of power in the Country. As households continue to suffer the brunt, businesses have not been left out of an unreliable supply which is largely counterproductive to production activities. As businesses turn to private individualised sources of power, the ripple effects on the cost of production have not been, in any way, friendly to the business environment. It is estimated that a whooping sum of about $29 billion is annually lost to unreliable power supply.
Various policies over time in the power sector have not transformed into better narratives. At a point when the proposition of deregulation came forth, steps towards this end have not yielded the desideratum. Despite accumulations of an estimated N2 trillion investments both from the Federal Government and international donors in about nine years, the sector has continued to dwindle in wavy dimensions. Deficits in generation, transmission and distribution deficiencies have been a close netting for the sector, against the expectations hoped for with privatisation.
The November 2013, decision which struck the privatisation deal of all generation and 10 distribution companies with the Federal Government retaining control of the transmission assets, and the subsequent privatisation of the 11th distribution company a year later in November 2014, have not changed narratives of inconsistencies in the sector, neither did the decision of the Federal Government in 2020 taking over one of the Distribution Companies, following the Senate approval of the sum of N26.9 billion as a refund for the acquisition of the company by a private investor, brought a better result.
A recent World Bank report indicated that over 60 percent of households were not connected to the power grid, indicating Nigeria as the Country housing the largest number of people without access to electricity in the world. According to the report, Nigeria’s power sector has not been able to keep up with demand or provide a reliable supply to existing customers. “Only 51 per cent of installed capacity is available for generation. An average Nigerian consumes four times less energy than her counterpart in a typical lower middle-income country. Businesses in Nigeria lose about $29 billion annually because of unreliable electricity,” the report had read partly.
Lack of synergy across the power sector value chain have been noted as one of the sources of the dismal performance of the industry. It has been observed that power generation companies could only release about 5,000MW into the national grid due to deficits in infrastructure for transmission and distribution to end-users. While moves are considered to supplying power directly to end-users through signing off power purchase agreements with industrial clusters across the country, the need to build a system of coordinated architecture to drive the parameters is sacrosanct.
As the challenges appear to be having a strong grip on the Country, calls for solutions have not seized from various quarters. The Federal Government on Tuesday said it had opened bids for the construction of nuclear power plants that would generate 4,000 megawatts of electricity for the Country. Director General, Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA), Dr Yau Idris, who made the disclosure while speaking at the ongoing Nigerian International Energy Summit (NIES) in Abuja, said the regulatory agency has signed agreements with Russia, Pakistan, France and South Korea to build the capacity of its staff in manning the nuclear plants.
“It is wrong to think that Nigeria can’t manage a nuclear power plant. There are mechanisms put in place that ensure any country can build a nuclear power plant. Nigeria is trying to deliver 4,000MW of electricity through nuclear power. We are trying to construct four units and we are at the bidding stage.”
He said Nigeria has been trying to diversify its energy sources since 1977, stressing that the additional 4,000MW would increase the country’s generation capacity to about 13,000MW,” he was quoted.
Just as it has become necessary to address the problems of power in the Country, doing same should be tailored with coordinated patterns, such as is needed to build a virile architecture to meet the economic needs of the Country. Various policies and interventions of the past have not brought Nigeria to the desideratum, it has now become of necessity that all new development be channeled along articulated system of connected parameters working systematically to the get the sector in the right direction.
