Dele Momodu Engages Naeto C on Power

Earlier today on Twitter, Naeto C engaged Team Dele Momodu on the feasibility of Dele Momodu's plans for the power sector as unveiled at the WhatAboutUs Presidential Debate which held in Abuja yesterday Friday March 25, 2011. Here, Dele Momodu responds:



Naeto C: According to Dele Momodu, "We can "zone" lighting so that a particular zone knows exactly when they will have electricity and people can plan." Are you kidding me? Is that what its called "zone lighting" or "demand-side management"? And please how is this suppose to happen when we can't even evacuate enough gas to supply the power station? Didn't I hear "we need to talk about supply before we talk about demand"?


Dele Momodu: The National electricity grid presently consists of nine generating stations (3 hydro and 6 thermal) with a total installed generating capacity of 5906 MW. According to the National Electric Power Policy, although the installed capacity of the existing power stations is 5906MW, the maximum load ever recorded was 2,470MW. The reason for this is clear. The transmission lines are radial and are overloaded. The switchgears are obsolete while power transformers have not been maintained for a long time. So in dealing with the power issue, we must first rehabilitate existing infrastructure like critical transmission and distribution lines and their associated sub stations to provide a maximum of 5400MW generating capacity. This is the focus of my first year in office as president as well as the proper management of what we currently generate. The truth is in Nigeria today, there are locations, especially where the elites are resident where power is more regular than in the other areas. Why is that? In most Nigerian homes today, when power goes off, nobody knows exactly when it will be restored. We must be able to do a time "zoning" of electricity in our villages, towns and cities so that a particular zone knows exactly what time of the day they will have electricity and the people can plan. Of course this is not all there is is to fixing the power problem. It is a first phase response. Thereafter, in my second year as president, we will focus on alternative sources of power generation from gas, coal, wind, solar and biomass. The bitter truth some Nigerians do not want to hear is that we can't just get constant electricity overnight! The issue of power can be fixed but we have to start somewhere. We have to start with the proper management of what we currently generate. Other countries in West Africa did it successfully in the first phase of managing their power crisis.


Naeto C: Tariffs have to be increased to attract foreign investment to aid in building our ailing power sector. Everybody needs to pay their electricity bills not shift blame. How much is government owing PHCN? Why didn't I hear anything about privatization to attract real money into the sector? Why would anyone want to start business in an unprofitable environment?


Dele Momodu: My brother, the electricity generation in Nigeria cannot be left solely to the private sector. The private sector can play a huge role in power distribution but our biggest challenge at the moment is generation. In Brazil for instance where they generate 96,000 mega watts of power, 10 percent of the power generation is left to the private sector while the government handles the rest in a very decentralised system of power generation, distribution and marketing. The private sector handles 64 percent of power distribution. We will welcome private investment in the power sector but we must begin with the proper management of what we already have. We are not opposed in anyway to privatising the power sector but must avoid the expensive mess of NITEL. We must make the sector attractive to investors in the first instance.