The Nigerian Institute of Power Engineers (NIPE) has called for a review of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).
It also stated that the National Transmission Company (TCN) needs to be unbundled and the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) should be phased out.
NIPE made the call two day after the Minister of Finance and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed alleged that the N1.3 trillion spent by the Federal Government in the past two years to support the sector has not yielded any meaningful result.
According to the President of NIPE, Engr. Israel Abraham, the industry’s privatisation exercise done about nine years ago has not met expectations in terms of improved electricity supply, cancelling the privatisation may lead to more problems in the sector.
He revealed that the system where each electricity distribution company (DisCo) was given about four states as franchises was unworkable as the operators do not have the resources to invest in such large areas to improve distribution infrastructures.
“There is a need to break up TCN to allow independence of the Independent System Operator (ISO) and the Independent Market Operator (IMO) for more effective and efficient management of the NESI.
“The unbundling exercise will thus require a massive funding mechanism by the FGN to support the TCN in bringing this about, and this should be considered a priority by the FGN.
“The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) should be phased out after satisfying the Conditions Precedent to bilateral contracts between willing buyers and willing sellers in the electricity market.
“DisCos should deploy Smart Meters to avoid consumer’s by-passing meters (to curtail electricity theft). Similarly, smart metering should be deployed on our transmission and sub-transmission networks (i.e. 330kv, 132kv, 33kv and 11kv) to create harmonious interface records. Load Limiters could be deployed for poor customers.
““There is a need to renegotiate the DisCos Franchise Areas to more manageable sizes. State by state basis for franchising is recommended. This will increase efficiency in power supply as each company will have enough funds to adequately invest to meet needs while the host state will find it economically convenient to partner as an investor with dedicated DisCos to make life better for its citizens,” he stated.
