Power crisis: Fashola advocates power conservation, energy audit

As efforts to achieve incremental power and improve supply in the country continues, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola , has stressed the need for a viable and reliable Energy Audit as well as conservation of energy in order to achieve the desired goal.

Fashola, who spoke in Maiduguri on Monday while opening the Eighth Monthly Meeting of Operators in the nation’s Power Sector, said the task of power supply would be greatly enhanced if the government and suppliers know the number of people that need power adding that it would enable them to adequately plan for the production and supply of such quantity of power.

The Minister explained that for the exercise to be viable and reliable, it should involve the audit of households and persons in those households that need the power as well as the quantity of power they needed adding that this would help government in planning a comprehensive service delivery across the country.

Saying that his Ministry plans to carry out such an audit during the next National Census exercise, Fashola, however appealed to state governments to embark on such exercise in their various states pointing out that the work of the power supply would be greatly enhanced if states could provide such information “in a very reliable manner”.

Noting the expressed desire of Borno State in particular for improved power supply given the damage to some of its power assets in the last few years, Fashola, however, appealed to the state government to furnish the Ministry with such information that would, according to him, provide it with the basis for such power.

The Minister said a standard format in which the audit data would be collected would be developed adding that it would be sent to state governments so that when responding, they would respond in a consistent manner.

On conservation as means of achieving stable power, Fashola, who reiterated that what is wasted could never be enough, also appealed to state governments to assist in educating their people on the need to conserve electricity expressing regrets that a large quantity of energy being generated across the country was still being wasted.

Emphasizing the need for every Nigerian to sign on to conservation of energy, the Minister declared, “Driving to the Damboa Station now, the Honourable Minister of State and I saw not a few shops with their bulbs still switched on by 10 o’clock in the morning. That is energy being wasted and that is energy that can be put in different use at the time when it is not needed at those shops”, adding that all electrical appliances that are not in use at any time should be switched off.

The Minister expressed delight that progress was being made on the part of government in the drive to increase power pointing out that since last monthly meeting government had signed a Power Purchase Agreements with 14 Solar Power developers to deliver 1,125MW of power to the National Grid.

He added, “Since that meeting also, Mr. President has approved new appointments to NERC and to NBET and very soon we will be having those newly appointed officers join us”, adding that constituting regulators on such a much more permanent and enduring basis would certainly increase stability in the sector, “and this is consistent also with our drive for Incremental Power”.

The Minister also noted that the decisions taken over the last few weeks and months since the monthly meeting started, were bringing some order back to the sector, citing the improvement in the daily energy output in the last few days as example.

He declared, “In spite of the gas outages that we have, for the last few days now, we are settling at just a little over 3,000MW daily which is some progress from a setback that we have recorded consistently because of vandalization and that is attributable to all of the works that all of you are doing at all ends, from gas to distribution and this is what we must continue”.

Thanking those who attended in spite of the reservations regarding the security in the State, the Minister declared, “Maiduguri and Borno State are parts of Nigeria and we are not leaving any part behind”, noting that those who attended must have noticed while driving around and trying to get to the venue, that things were a little different from what was being portrayed outside about the security situation in the State.

Describing the situation as being on the positive side, Fashola recalled, “As I told His Royal Highness, the Shehu of Bornu, when I stopped over to visit, seeing people working their ATM cards trying to cash money, vending food, selling, building and construction work returning to our transmission site in Damboa, this is clearly inconsistent with the picture of horror that is still being painted around Borno and Maiduguri in particular”.

“We have heard from those who are on ground that local government activities have returned in substantially all the local governments except probably two or three. We have heard that power supply has improved in these parts as a result of our collective undertaking. This is consistent with our roadmap of achieving first Incremental Power”, he said, adding that he was in the state to see what more could be done to improve the service delivery.

Fashola paid glowing tribute to all the nation’s security agencies saying the professionalism and dedication that they demonstrated was responsible for bringing order back to that part of the country and particularly to Borno state. “And that is why business men from across the country can come here and hold a meeting and I think they deserve all the applause and all the support we can give them”, he added.

Fielding questions from newsmen after the meeting, Fashola explained that the focus of government was on generation and transmission of Power in the need to generate more power which, according to him,  “is consistent with our roadmap of Incremental, Stable and ultimately Uninterrupted Power”.

He told the newsmen, “One of the things we went to look at now was a burnt panel which, if fixed, would greatly increase power supply”, adding, “This Yola distribution is shedding power not because it doesn’t have enough power but because it cannot take the power out”.

“So we have asked the MD to quickly accelerate the procurement process now because we have power but because an equipment has been damaged for years here and nobody seems to be responding to it. But that will change from today”, he said.

The Minister also expressed optimism that the Damboa Station, currently under repairs, would be finished this year adding that when it was done, the capacity to take power would be further increased.

Again stressing the need for an Energy Audit, the Minister, who recalled that some of the state commissioners had asked for increase of power, declared, “We can’t increase power supply without knowing actually what the power needs of the people are. And so we expect the distribution companies to conduct an energy audit of all their energy consumers that is when we will really know what their energy needs are”.

“Then we will be able then to work with the distribution companies, with the generation companies, with the transmission companies to actually take the energy to where it is actually needed most and by whom it is needed”, he said.

He expressed the hope that Borno State would take the lead in the exercise adding that the template for the exercise would be sent to them. The Minister also enjoined the Media to lead in educating the people about conserving energy, to switch off electricity appliances when they are not in use.