Yemisi Izuora
The Federal Government will now apply electronic monitoring of petroleum products pipelines and other facilities that transport gas to thermal power plants in the country.
Prof. Chinedu Nebo, Minister of Power who disclosed the planned measure in Lagos claimed that consistent vandalisation of such facilities has stagnated efforts to generate more electricity as well as not enabling the sector achieve its targeted.
Nebo said the challenges notwithstanding, government is certain to multiply electricity generation in the next four years.
He also said that current power generation as at last weekend stood at 3, 600 mega watts due to gas challenges, adding that about 70 per cent of generated power is from gas-fired turbine and 30 per cent hydro.
The minister assured that when the country achieves a holistic energy mix, things will get much better because oil thieves and pipeline vandals make it difficult for Nigerians to benefit from what government has achieved so far.
“We have far larger capacity installed than the power we are giving out because of gas supply, but that is being taken care of.
Electronic gadgets are being installed to ensure that at any point of disruption our security forces will know and know how to forestall it,” he said.
He said the Power Sector is beginning to see the impact of the privatization of the generation and distribution assets to the benefit of the Nigerian electricity consumer.
The minster also noted that the ability to wheel power from the generation stations to distribution companies rests with the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) which has been strengthened by the private sector participation.
TCN he stressed has the mandate of not only upgrading the existing transmission infrastructure but also to embark on new transmission projects to expand capacity around the country.
Nebo said government has approved huge capital investment to enable TCN to realise its great vision for a more robust higher capacity transmission network in the country.
He said that major pipelines, the Trans Niger Pipeline, and the Trans Forcados Pipeline (TNP) were hacked into at multiple points, leading to production losses as well as drop in power generation, as the plants were starved of gas supply.
The minister however said the situation was now under control, as generation capacity has moved up again to above the 3, 600 mega watts, band, Nigeria’s highest capacity till date.
The minister said that vandalism has become one of the biggest challenges faced in the energy industry in general, with attendant colossal losses running in millions of dollars in terms of crude oil and gas production as well as power generation shortages.
“The menace has so far defied logical solution as multiple Joint Task Forces (JTFs) set up on regularly basis have had little or no effect on the activities of the vandals, despite the hundreds of millions of Naira of taxpayers money used in maintaining the JTF outfits.
Nebo explained that government had to take this bold step, as this was now the only way to safeguard infrastructure in Nigeria.
“In the meantime, the government is also planning to include the Nigeria Air Force, NAF, in the JTF team to provide aerial surveillance for these facilities to reduce the spate of vandalism on them,”he said.